Ultra Sonic
by Proplayer
Summary: First there was Super Sonic. Then there was Hyper Sonic. But, there's another power level that Sonic has not yet reached, one that may very well consume him.
1. 01: Covert Beginning

Author's Notes: Ok, from now on, I would like my readers to visit my profile for random updates from there. Right now it doesn't look like much but that's because it'm a little busy/too lazy to make it look like much, but I plan to update it everytime I update a chapter, so yeah, would like that.

Ultra Sonic 01

Covert Beginning

The dark hallway was filled with little rats scurrying around. They ran every which way, their little claws making small scratching sounds across the metal floor. On one side of the hall, impossible to see in the dark, a door slowly retracts upward, and immediately light started pouring in along with some wind and sand. The rats quickly scurry away into far off corners and behind boxes. They hide from the light, and are afraid of being blown away by the wind. One rat braves to take a look at what was going on. Outside there was a very fierce sandstorm in progress. It was so fierce you could barely see the pyramids in the distance. Out from the sand came three figures: Sonic, Amy, and a large blue machine walking on two legs. Quills bristling in the wind Sonic quickly searched the wall beside him. He found a switch and pressed it, and slowly the door started to come down and seal off the wind and sand from the inside once more. After a moment, two lights came on from the Walker and the three continued in, navigating the dark passageway.

"Finally, we're here." Sonic said, shaking from side to side to get the sand out of his fur. Amy looked at him and sighed as she pulled out a comb and started to comb the sand out of her hair.

"Sonic, you are so uncivilized sometimes." Amy said as she continued with her task.

"Hey Tails, remind me why we brought Amy along again." Sonic asked, looking up at the Walker. The visor covering the top pulled back to reveal Tails sitting in the cockpit of his new machine, with Cream and Cheese sitting in the back.

"Oh come on Sonic, how could you forget?" Tails asked him. "Amy said she wasn't going to be left behind again and after an hour of her following us and begging you, you finally caved in."

"Oh, yeah..." Sonic then gave a look to Cream and Cheese. Cream was wearing a pair of goggles and fiddling around with the controls at her disposal while Cheese lay on top of Cream's head. "Well, in that case, can you remind me of why those two are with us?"

"Cream and Cheese? It's because I need help to run the Cyclone II you know. It's not just a bigger machine, but it also has some extra firepower and other uses that need two people to run. And other than Knuckles, I don't know anybody else that can work any type of controls. You and Amy never listen when I try to explain that stuff to you, but at least Cream does."

"What happened when you guys asked Knuckles to come along?" Amy spoke up, finally done with her hair and putting her comb away.

"He was already gone. With the chaos emeralds missing again, and Eggman being up to no good for past few weeks, something must have happened. There was no trace of him or the Master Emerald anywhere on Angel Island, which had fallen back into the ocean by the way." Tails said.

"I hope he's ok." Amy said, getting a little worried.

"Oh don't worry, it's Knuckles we're talking about. He'll be ok." Sonic said.

Finally the group made it to the end of their long walk to enter onto an elevator platform, overlooking a large complex. The group stared on in awe for a second. Everywhere you could see robots working, conveyor belts moving rocks, drilling going on, and in the center of it all was a large shrine. Robots were digging everywhere around it, trying to uncover whatever they could. The gang had fallen upon a mining complex.

"Wow, it seems Eggman has really been working recently." Sonic said with a whistle.

"This place is huge. When did he get the time to do all of this?" Amy asked.

"I suppose he works on multiple projects at once. He might have been studying all of this all the way back to when we were fighting Chaos."

"Sonic, I think you might be right." Tails said, pointing at what appeared to be a giant tablet with a picture of echidnas and what seemed to be the Master Emerald.

"So, what do we do now?" Amy asked.

"Well, first off, we won't find out much more until we get down there," Sonic started, "I suggest that you and I look around while Tails and Cream stay up here."

"Ok then, if anything happens, you two can call us with these communicators." Tails said, giving one to each Sonic and Amy.

"Ok, Amy, are you ready?"

"Um, yeah, let's go."

The two hedgehogs jumped off to the side and started running down the side of the wall, quickly arriving at its base. Once touching horizontal ground, they quickly moved behind some barrels as a robot passed carrying a load of dirt. The robot moved on wheels and looked like a mini dump truck, but after it dumped off its load, it transformed and the sets of wheels became two legs. It then quickly ran back to wherever it came from.

"Eggman has new robots." Amy whispered.

"Yeah, and until we know everything they can do we have to be careful." Sonic whispered back.

The two snuck around more barrels, trying their best to get closer to the tablet without being noticed. They moved from barrels to boxes to walls, hiding in the shadows until they made it to their destination. Upon finding the closest hiding spot to the tablet, they heard a familiar voice.

"Ah! My beloved Diggits, how is the excavation of this wonderful artifact going?" Eggman asked, walking over and past where Sonic and Amy was hiding to come into view. One of the digging robots quickly made their way over to him. The robot was mostly a large cylinder head with an Eggman face painted on. It had wings so it could fly like a bee and long arms with shovels for hands for digging. It had no legs at all.

"Excavation 98 complete. Artifact translation 95 complete." The computerized voice of the Diggit answered, hovering in front of Eggman.

"Good, good, very good indeed. How much longer until we can move this rock to my new base?"

"Ten minutes."

"Yes, very good timing. Is there anything else I should know about?"

"Yes. Life forms identified as Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream have been spotted in the desert area recently."

"Just as I expected. Ok, we need to speed up the process then. Set the alert status to high and forgo on the rest of the tablet translation. Concentrate all forces on excavating it. I'll finish the translation myself later." Eggman then walked off.

"Ok Sonic, what now?" Amy whispered.

"I say we get out of here. I doubt we'll be able to stop Eggman, so we can try and follow him later." Sonic whispered back.

"Hey, you two behind those boxes, what are you doing there whispering?" A random Diggit said. The two turned to see it coming towards them, but it hadn't identified them yet.

"We've been spotted!" Amy whispered to Sonic.

"Don't move." Sonic said to Amy, waiting for the robot to come closer.

"Wait, I can get him from here." Amy said, pulling out her Piko Piko Hammer.

"No, wait Amy!" Sonic whispered. But it was too late. Amy threw the hammer at the robot, which smashed him completely and caused him to explode, which also caused a whole lot of other Diggits to turn and fly towards the sudden explosion.

"Oops..." Amy said.

"I was going to try and sneak out from behind him, but now we gotta run double speed!" Sonic grabbed Amy's hand and the two ran off, Diggits chasing.

"Tails, how much longer do we have to wait?" Cream asked in the back seat of the Cyclone II. To avoid total boredom she was playing patty cake with Cheese.

"Just until Sonic calls us. We might not even get to do anything but run off."

"Oh, that's so boring! What will we do until then?"

"I don't know, just wait for something to happen."

Cream slumped back into her seat a little, before jumping up from a sudden jolt throughout the Cyclone II.

"Tails, what was that?"

"It's the elevator, someone must have called it down."

"Then what do we do?"

"It's too late to go back, we just have to wait and see who's waiting there for us. Best case scenario is that it'll be Sonic."

"And what about the worst case?"

"It'll be Eggman."

The two waited in silence as the platform lowered itself slowly to the ground floor. With a small thud, the platform locked into the ground and ten Diggits, each with their guns out and pointing, surrounded the Cyclone II. Straight ahead stood Eggman, grinning.

"Oh, well if it isn't fox-boy. I bet you're here with Sonic to try and find what I have hidden here, now aren't you?" Eggman asked, his grin growing ever larger.

"You won't get away with whatever you're doing Eggman!" Tails yelled.

"Ha! That's what you think. My plan is coming along nicely as it is. Now, will you please step off the elevator? Or will my Diggits have to force you?"

Tails gritted his teeth at Eggman's smirk, but proceeded to move the Cyclone II out of Eggman's way. Eggman calmly stepped onto the platform without looking back.

"Just to let you know, this place is set to self destruct five minutes after my package leaves. Toodles." Eggman said, pressing a few buttons on the side and then zooming up and away.

"Cream, fire!" Tails yelled. Cream unleashed a set of homing missiles she had been targeting at the Diggits. In a split second all of the Diggits around them were scrap metal.

"Tails, if you move a little, I think I can get a lock onto Eggman." Cream quickly yelled from the back.

"No, we've gotta go get Sonic so we can get out of here. We don't know how much time we have left for sure." With the end of that sentence, a low rumbling went through the ground all around them. Tails quickly spun the Cyclone II around to point to the center of the area, where the tablet was supposed to be. They saw the tablet, but it was slowly rising with jets attached to it. A couple of missiles were soon fired at the top of the pyramid, blowing open the top, and away the tablet went.

"Change that, we have five minutes left, for sure."


	2. 02: Pyramid Escape

Ultra Sonic 02

Pyramid Escape

"Hyah!" Amy yelled, smashing her Piko Piko Hammer through another Diggit blocking her way. However, as soon as that one fell, another appeared, and Sonic quickly dashed in with a Homing Attack and did quick work to the new one. The two ran behind some more boxes, eluding sight for short amount of time.

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked as the two of them tried to catch their breath.

"Try to get out of here as quickly as possible. Stealth was never my thing anyway."

"But how? This whole place has been put on full alert, and almost everyone of those Diggit things are looking for us."

Sonic got up to look to see how much longer they could keep cover when a sudden violent shake lurched him into the boxes he was hiding behind, knocking them down. He quickly looked up to see the giant tablet that Eggman had found had gotten free of the ground thanks to some rockets recently attached to it. The tablet moved into the air, slowly gaining speed as two missiles were soon fired from some place at the roof of the pyramid. The pyramid top was blown to pieces by the missiles and the tablet quickly flew out of the brand new sunroof.

"There goes our only other reason for being here. The first being Eggman, anyways." Sonic muttered to himself, getting up from the fallen crates.

"Sonic, look!" Amy yelled. Sonic darted his eyes up to see three Diggits zooming on their way towards him and Amy, their lasers charging. But before they could fire, a couple rocks from the blown pyramid top fell and landed on top of them, flattening them easily.

"Whoa, lucky us. But we'd better get out of here before our luck runs out." Sonic said, grabbing Amy's hand and running off towards the direction.

The two sped off pretty quickly, nothing in their way until they turned a corner to see 5 more Diggits patrolling. Sonic quickly skidded to a halt, but he couldn't avoid being seen by them. Turning as fast as he could to run, he was surprised to hear sudden explosions. He turned back to see...

"Tails, Cream!" Amy yelled, running past Sonic towards the Cyclone II. "You came to save us!"

"Sonic, Amy, we don't have much time, this place is triggered to explode in a few minutes! We have to get out of here!"

"What?" Amy yelled in surprise.

"Ok Tails, sure," Sonic said quickly, "Just lead the way out of here, and quick!"

"Cyclone II, transform!" Tails yelled, pressing a couple of buttons on his console."

"Transform to Racer Mode!" Cream yelled, pressing buttons on her own console in sync with Tails.

The resulting effort of the fox and rabbit led to the Cyclone II transformation. First, it lowered itself down, touching the ground. The legs locked up into the main body and out from their sides, wheels were uncovered. Small stilts quickly came out, lifting the Cyclone II into the air slightly, and allowing the wheels to lock into place and at the right height. Finally, the missile launcher retracted and in its place was left a stylish drag race fin.

"Ok, follow me!" Tails called out to Sonic and Amy, and then quickly revved the engine before speeding the Cyclone II in its new form along the passageways of the digging complex. Sonic grabbed Amy's hand and quickly sped off after Tails, not wanting to be left behind.

"Cream," Tails started from the front seat of the Cyclone II, "while in Racer mode, you only have two retractable Vulcan cannons on either side of the Cyclone II. They are completely 180 degrees rotate able, and fire independently, each using one of the two joysticks you have."

"Ok, Tails." Cream said, pressing a button to release the Vulcan cannons. The targeting reticules came up on her screen immediately afterward and she quickly gripped the two joysticks.

"Be careful though, I can't reach my top speed of Mach 2 while those are out unless I want them to be blown off, so just remember to retract them when I tell you to."

The group of four sped throughout the complex, quickly making their way. Sonic was surprised however as they made a turn away from the elevator they used to get in. He quickly sped up to the side and started talking to Tails.

"Tails, shouldn't we go back to the elevator?"

"That's no good Sonic, the whole thing is jammed thanks to something Eggman did. So we have to find a new way out, but it's on the other side of the pyramid."

"What do you mean? The only thing on the other side is just a solid rock wall!"

"I know, just trust me." Tails gave a small wink to Sonic, and quickly sped up. But then his radar beeped.

"Cream, I got something stuff on my radar. Possible Eggman robots closing in from behind." Just barely after saying that, laser fire started appearing around them like rain.

"They're in my sights Tails." Cream said. She could see the Diggits closing in and quickly started firing. With only a few hits the Diggits started dropping like flies, and Cream kept up a constant barrage.

Turning a few more corners, Tails soon found the passageway he was looking for, but more problems aroused. The bombs Eggman had set started going off, causing buildings and lots of rock and dirt to start tumbling everywhere, including around them.

Tails quickly lurched back and forth, dodging rocks that kept falling in front of him. Moving quickly left and right, he could soon see the wall that he was looking for, and started to speed up. Cream soon noticed a warning come up during her firing spree to retract the Vulcan cannons.

"Tails, what's going on?"

"I'm going to max speed, hold on tight!" A small boom was heard as Tails broke through the sound barrier and started to rapidly approach top speed. The Vulcan cannons were quickly retracted as to avoid them being ripped off from just the wind. Sonic and Amy, within the slip stream of the Cyclone II were able to keep up.

Tails quickly sped through the rest of the passageway, easily avoiding rocks by just speeding under them as more and more explosions happened and the pyramid slowly started to crumble away, threatening to engulf Sonic and his friends. Nearing the end of the road, he quickly started punching in a few buttons.

"Digger Drill, activate!" Tails yelled, a huge drill appearing out of the front of the Cyclone II. It soon started to spin incredibly fast as Tails rammed the Cyclone at top speed into the wall. Although the pyramid wall was sturdy and considered indestructible, the Cyclone II ripped through it like a hot knife through butter with Sonic and Amy right behind them. Next thing the foursome knew, they were speeding along the desert sand once again and away from the pyramid.

Stopping a little way away, the group turned to see the pyramid that was now just a huge mess of rubble, it having caved in only seconds after they had escaped.


	3. 03: Island Moment

Author's Notes: I'm going to start updating my profile with things everytime I update a chapter. Right now it isn't much, but please start checking it out anyways. If any of you feel like sending me e-mails for suggestions I would like that. Anyway, I hope you at least come once as there is something currently bothering me on there right now. Now, on with the story.

Ultra Sonic 03

Island Moment

Three days ago...

The Guardian of Angel Island, Knuckles, sat peacefully napping in front of the Master Emerald. Squirrels scurried around him while birds landed on his head. It was a peaceful time. There was nothing to worry about.

Sitting there Knuckles dreamed. He dreamed of fun, of peace, of relaxation, the same kind he was getting now. But throughout it all, he felt that he was missing something. In his dream, he was running through his thoughts and memories, trying to find the one thing that would make everything whole. He searched and searched and searched until...

Knuckles' eyes snapped open, sensing a presence before him. They snapped open so suddenly that all the birds and squirrels around him ran quickly away from fright. This all surprised Rouge, who was about to give him a tap on the shoulder, and she ended up jumping back with a loud yell before falling down the many stairs up to the Master Emerald.

"Rouge, are you ok?" Knuckles called down, quickly jumping from his position and landing beside her to help her up.

"I'm ok, I guess..." Rouge said, holding her head and taking Knuckles' hand to stand up. Once up she quickly jumped away from him and yelled, "Don't ever startle me like that again or I promise you'll be dead!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just you startled me a little when I felt someone was near."

"Whatever." Rouge snapped, then mumbling something about him trying to kill her.

"Anyway...what brings you here?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, I came to see you of course. Why else would I track down and find my way on top of this floating island?"

"Well I don't know, maybe to steal the Master Emerald?"

"Knuckles, how dare you accuse me of such a thing?" Rouge asked, looking shocked.

"You've done it before." Knuckles said with a monotone.

"Well, uh, I learned my lesson from last time, remember? Anyway, you never showed me how to make the Master Emerald smaller before."

"That's easy, you just touch and ask it to become smaller."

"Ask it? You talk as if that thing is a living thing."

"In a way, it is actually. The Master Emerald has to be I guess, as it controls so much power, and balances the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Well, at least that's what I think."

"I see..." Rouge said, starting to walk back up the stairs. Knuckles followed her. The two found themselves at the top of the shrine, once again looking at the Master Emerald.

"The view of up here is great you know. I can never get tired of it." Knuckles said, looking around.

"Huh?" Rouge asked. She had been staring at the emerald the whole time.

"From up here, you can almost see the entire island."

"Oh." Rouge said, turning to see what he meant. She found herself speechless as she looked around. The golden sand radiated from the desert, followed by the greens of a magical looking forest with mushrooms for trees. Next to that you could see the snow capped mountains, and then another area of ruins which tiny figures of echidnas could be seen.

A light wind soon came and rustled Knuckles' spines. Rouge thought about how the whole place seemed perfect and full of magic. It was a wonderful feeling, the kind she got whenever a beautiful jewel fell into her possession. That's when she felt a light touch on her hand, and realized that it was Knuckles'. She grabbed it with her own hand and then couldn't help but lean on his shoulder as the two watched the sight.

That's when Knuckles sensed danger. "Rouge, get down!" Knuckles yelled, pulling her down to the floor as a black blur flew over them from the stairs, right where their heads just were. Knuckles immediately got up and jumped in front of Rouge defiantly, before a look of surprise overtook him.

"Shadow? What are you doing here?" Knuckles asked quickly, letting his guard down.

"Rouge, you've taken too long. Hurry up, we have to go." Shadow said.

"What do you mean she's taken too long?" Knuckles asked. Suddenly he felt a strike to the back of his head and soon fell over unconscious.

"I'm sorry Knuckles..." Rouge said slowly, after hitting him over the head with a loose brick.

"Save your sorrows for later. He may wake up soon. Now how do we shrink this humongous thing?"

"I'll do it." Rouge said, stepping over Knuckles. She walked over to the emerald and touched it. She could immediately feel its energy, along with something else. Something that seemed like age and wisdom. She had never felt this when she had the smaller shards from before. She then remembered what Knuckles had told her just a little while ago and with her mind she asked the emerald to shrink. It soon shrank until it was just larger than a chaos emerald.

"Ok, I got it, let's go." Rouge said, pocketing the emerald.

Shadow quickly rushed back down the stairs. Rouge started to follow, but stopped when she reached Knuckles. She looked down on him with tears nearly welling up in her eyes.

"He'll never trust me again..." Rouge said softly before bending down and giving him a kiss on the cheek. She then quickly got up and wiped away her tears.

"Rouge, hurry up!" She heard Shadow yell. She looked over at Knuckles one last time before running down the steps to leave.

The island soon fell into the water, causing a massive earthquake and some tidal waves to crash onto it. All of the calamity stirred Knuckles enough until he finally woke up and looked around. It took him a second to realize that the island had crashed again. It had landed in the middle of the ocean this time, far from any main land. He quickly looked up to see the Master Emerald gone from its pedestal.

"Shadow and Rouge..." Knuckles whispered their names with anger. But then he remembered when he had held Rouge's hand...

A couple minutes afterward Knuckles was running through the Mushroom Forest, reaching the tallest mushroom tree there was. He climbed up to the very top as fast as he could and from there looked to see where the closest form of land there was. Luckily he spotted the main land to the west and from what he could tell it was close enough for him to glide part of the way and swim the rest.

Bouncing a little on the mushroom for some extra height, Knuckles launched himself into the air and away he went.


	4. 04: Obvious Bait

Ultra Sonic 04

Obvious Bait

"I'm still searching Sonic. So far there's nothing." Tails said in dismay, typing rapidly on a laptop he had brought to a café in Station Square. "None of his computer files point to anywhere at all. His last dated project in his databanks was that pyramid base."

"How about the location of where he sent that tablet thing?"

"It says they were shipped off to some unknown location, no coordinates or anything. The jets he had strapped on to it must have had some signal tracker and can work independently of the rest of his systems."

"What does all this mean?" Amy asked, finishing her drink.

"It means that Eggman's getting smarter." Sonic said with a firm tone. His mind was racing trying to figure out what to do next. They had no more leads whatsoever.

After escaping the pyramid base two days ago, they had gone back to Cream's house and had to leave her there, as her mom wouldn't let her go out again. So now the whole thing was left to only them to solve.

Tails finally stopped his searching and powered down his laptop. "I have his entire system mainframe downloaded now. He didn't try to protect it or anything. There are traces here and there of him transporting things to some unknown location with no coordinates in the last year or so, starting around the end of our battles at the space colony ARK."

"It looks like Eggman is planning something big. We just have to figure it out in time to stop it." Sonic said, determined as always.

"But how?" Amy asked, giving a sigh. "We have no leads left. We even tried flying after the tablet, but it just disappeared. Plus Knuckles is still missing. Maybe it's related?"

"Maybe. But I doubt it has anything to do with Knuckles, probably just the Master Emerald. He wants it again." Tails said, sure of himself.

"Wait!" Sonic said, jumping up, "The tablet had some pictures on it, remember? One of which we agreed on had to be the Master Emerald."

"Yes, but why? Why does he want the Master Emerald? And we have to ask what also. What is he planning to do? And, what was one on that tablet that he needed in order to do whatever he's planning?" Tails said. After saying all that, the group just slumped lower into their chairs.

"Well guys, we're not going to get anything done just sitting here. Let's go out and do something." Sonic said. He was getting restless from all of this sitting around for the last few days. He hadn't had a good run since they visited the pyramid.

The trio walked outside only to hear screams coming from down the street. Looking to where the screams came from, they also saw smoke. It so happened that the mall was on fire.

"What's going on?" Amy asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Sonic said before blazing off towards the mall. Tails and Amy quickly hopped into the Cyclone II and followed.

The three quickly arrived at the mall to see none other than Metal Sonic rocketing through the halls and crashing straight through stores. He was purposely causing a ruckus to scare the people out of the mall, and attract the attention of his nemesis.

"Metal!" Hearing his name the robot quickly stopped and hovered with his jet to see his counterpart at the entrance to the mall.

"Nice of you to join us." Metal said coolly in his metallic voice. He was back into his mark I form after the incident during Sonic Heroes.

"Metal, what are you doing here?" Sonic yelled.

"We're about to give you a present."

"Wait a second, what did you mean by 'we'?" Amy asked. Suddenly a blur of metallic silver and blue zoomed down from above, suddenly stopping in mid air with the activation of three jets, two on its feet and one from its back. Hovering before the trio was a new robot, one that was shorter but sleeker than Metal Sonic. It was a lot like Metal Sonic's design except with slightly longer and less curving spines, silver plated arms and legs ending with red and white shoe designs and blue claws. Instead of a jet encompassing its entire main body like Metal, it had a long and sleek silver body with a blue armor top that fit like a shirt. The back of the armor had a rather large jet attached.

"Who are you?" Tails asked, the question that all three wanted to ask.

"My name is Silica, and I'm the new robot on the block sent by Eggman to destroy you three." Silica said, with a suave metallic female voice.

"Oh, you really think you're that strong, huh?" Sonic said arrogantly.

"No, she isn't, she's just bluffing." Metal Sonic said, moving to her side, "But together you don't have a chance Sonic."

"Wow Metal, resorting to help already just to defeat little old me?" Sonic responded.

"Let's just see if you still feel that way after we fight."

"No! I don't need your help to defeat any of these three!" Silica yelled at Metal Sonic.

"Oh really Silica?" Metal said coolly. "You may have data on these three, but you have no experience. What makes you think you can really take them on?"

"Just because I was designed to work with you doesn't mean I have to. You and I both know I have the power in me and the potential to do even more."

"Is that so?" Sonic said, stepping forward. "Then how about the two of us tangle Silica, just to prove your worth?"

"No Sonic, I want to take her down." Amy said, stepping past him.

"The brat? This will be a piece of cake!" Silica yelled before a small laugh.

"Oh really, then let's go!" Amy yelled, pulling out her Piko Piko Hammer.

"Amy, are you sure about this?" Sonic asked.

"Yes Sonic, I'm sure." Amy said.

"Ok then, you two can fight. It will be quite amusing to see who wins." Metal said, slowly backing away.

With a nod between the two, Sonic and Tails retreated also to stand at the mall entrance.

"Ok, let's go!" Amy yelled, rushing straight at her opponent. As soon as she got close enough she made a quick swing with her hammer, only to hit air. Silica had quickly activated her three jets and dashed away. Amy charged again, but the same thing happened.

"Hey, wait, not even Metal Sonic can move that fast!" Tails exclaimed.

"I was specifically designed for speed, nothing else." Silica said flatly before rushing straight at Amy. Amy barely had time to think before a swift kick landed on her stomach, sending her flying back a few feet. She quickly got up only to see Silica already in front of her, picking her claws. Before Amy could do anything Silica boosted her back jet and made a flip kick to Amy's jaw, sending her up into the air. She then flew up after the pink hedgehog and grabbed her by the foot, then swinging around and sending her towards the ground.

"Amy!" Sonic yelled, about to run in to help her when she suddenly flipped in mid air, landing on her feet and then quickly flinging her hammer into the air after Silica. Silica quickly charged at Amy, stopping only to quickly flip and dodge the hammer thrown at her. Amy then jumped up and tried to land a hit on Silica, but she was still too quick and dodged Amy too before landing.

"Sorry brat, but I guess I'm just too fast for you, and totally out of your league." Silica said.

"I wouldn't be too sure. You may be faster than me, but that doesn't mean you have eyes in the back of your head."

Before Silica could even respond Amy's hammer spun back around and smacked Silica in the back of the head before bouncing off into Amy's hands. Silica was knocked to the ground by the force of the hit, and quickly jumped back up in anger.

"I can't believe you hit! No one can touch me!"

"Well, I guess there's a first time for everything."

Silica was obviously fuming from her pipes before Metal stepped in. "We've spent enough time here; we must go and complete our mission."

"Hey, wait a second, where are you guys off too now?" Sonic asked.

"Now wouldn't you like to know?" Silica said before she and Metal blasted off and out of the back of the mall.

"Quickly, we've got to follow them!" Sonic yelled before also zooming after the two robots.

"Amy, you think you can run?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, but if those two are heading to one of Eggman's flying bases, we'll need to have the Cyclone II handy." Amy said.

"Good idea, let's go!" Tails and Amy ran back out and jumped inside the machine, driving off after Sonic.


	5. 05: The Chase

Ultra Sonic 05

The Chase

Two dark figures silently ran through an overgrown forest. The two quickly dodged past trunks and branches, running around vegetation and wildlife. They quickly skipped over lily pads to cross small lakes, and finally came out onto a cliff face overlooking a large ravine. Sitting in this large ravine was a large ship, similar in design to one of Dr. Eggman's usual battle ships.

The two figures walked out further into the light, revealing themselves to be Shadow and Rouge. Shadow quickly peeked over the cliff face to make sure there was nothing to be alerted of. He was one to never want to run into a trap. His companion, Rouge, sat down on a nearby rock and pulled off a backpack she had been carrying. Surveying its contents she could not help but to fall into a hypnotic stare at the majestic jewel that she had stolen. She loved to stare at jewels, but nothing enraptured her as much as the Master Emerald. Something about it felt so vibrant, pure, powerful. But it seemed to hold the ability to be tainted so easily, making it feel more like a fragile child in her arms.

"Rouge, wake up and stop staring at that emerald." Shadow suddenly said, piercing her thoughts.

"Huh? What?" Rouge said, surprised.

"I don't know what is about that gem that puts you into a trance, but right now I need you to concentrate. This is your plan, but I'm still not sure it'll work. How do you know Eggman's not just waiting for us to walk right in so he can take us prisoner?"

"Because all Eggman can think about is defeating Sonic. Don't worry, my plan will work, and we'll be in and out faster than you might think. Now let's go." Rouge quickly put the Master Emerald back into her backpack and then slipped the backpack back on. She then took a few steps back before running straight off of the cliff and diving at the landed aircraft. Shadow quickly also ran off and jumped, just grabbing Rouge by her feet before she lowered them both slowly to the ship.

Once they landed, they quickly found a door and rushed inside. As all of this happened, they neglected to notice a pair of violet eyes glaring after them like a hungry wolf.

"Hey Metal head! I thought you wanted to fight? Where are you running off to now?" Sonic yelled after Metal Sonic as he sped after him and Silica."

"In due time hedgehog, in due time..." Metal Sonic muttered to himself. How he'd love to stop now and challenge Sonic right now, but he had a job to finish first.

The three continued zooming through the plains, with Sonic unable to catch up with them, but with Metal Sonic and Silica being unable to get any farther away. Up above in the new Tornado, Tails and Amy watched the scene below.

"Hey Tails, look up ahead!" Amy yelled over the engines of the plane.

"What is it Amy?" Tails answered

"It looks like there's a forest up ahead. We may lose track of Sonic!"

Tails realized that Amy was probably right. The forest was filled with trees too big to see through from above, but they were too clumped together for him to be able to fly through.

"We'll have to pull up and then go after Sonic on foot!" Tails called back to Amy, raising the altitude of his machine so as to make sure it didn't crash. He then quickly set the autopilot and looked for the best place to jump off.

"Tails, are you serious? We're going to jump off from this height?"

"Yes, now let's go!" Tails yelled, jumping into the air and grabbing Amy's hand in order to pull her with him. Soon after jumping off, Tails started to spin his tails and then the two of them were speeding down towards the ground, catching up to Sonic. Sonic looked over to see that they were there, and then quickly grabbed each of their arms and pulled them along with him as they entered the forest.

The second they flew past the first tree, they almost crashed into a second. Sonic quickly whirred left and right, dodging branches and bushes, and barely keeping his adversaries in his sights. They were moving fast over what seemed a planned course; they weren't having any problems figuring out the best way through to get to where they wanted to go. Sonic figured this might be a trap from the start, but he kept plowing ahead to see where he would be led.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon turning into a large ravine and running for a minute more, the group stopped in front of a large ship towering over them. There was a ramp at the front leading inside. The three could see Metal Sonic and Silica watching them from the top before turning and continuing inside.

"Sonic, I have a bad feeling about this..." Amy whispered nervously.

"I do too, but we have to keep going. Eggman's probably behind this and I can't wait to stop whatever plan he's coming up with."

Sonic proceeded to take one step forward before noticing the sound of a small 'whirr'. Suddenly, a laser was shot at the three heroes and they all had to jump away as the explosion sent them flying.

Sonic, being the first to get up, looked around and saw that there were three more of those gun turrets, all aimed at him. Sonic quickly dodged the next laser fired at him and then started to run around to go and help Amy and Tails.

"Sonic, wait, you go inside and find out what's going on. Tails and I can handle these guys!" Amy yelled out to Sonic.

"But Amy..." Sonic started.

"No Sonic, Amy's right, we can't waste time, like you said, you've gotta stop whatever Eggman's planning." Tails said, siding with Amy.

"Ok then guys, don't take too long with these things." Sonic said, turning and running into the ship.

With one less target the turrets turned on Amy and Tails, Amy quickly threw her Piko Piko Hammer at one turret and blew it up while Tails took to the air and quickly smashed another with his feet.

"This'll be done in no time." Amy commented as her hammer spun around like a boomerang and returned to her hands.

"Don't speak too soon." Tails said in response as he looked at the door to the ship. Many of Eggman's Eggbots were suddenly spilling out, running directly towards the two with pointed spears in their arms.

"Metal Sonic, report!" Eggman yelled into an intercom in his ship's control room. "I just got notice that 20 Eggbots were equipped with spears and sent outside under your authorization. Why have you done this without my knowledge?"

"Sir, Sonic and his friends have arrived." Metal Sonic answered simply.

"Oh, well...carry on then." Eggman said embarrassed before closing the com link. It seems that everything was going according to plan after all. He shouldn't be so paranoid of Metal Sonic.

"It seems doctor that you're still frightened that Metal Sonic might disobey you like he did with the whole Metal Overlord incident." Shadow said in a mocking voice.

Turning quickly Eggman saw before him Shadow and Rouge. Behind them he could see the door still closing behind them.

"Oh, Shadow and Rouge, what a surprise. When you said that you'd be back quickly, I didn't think it would be this fast, but yes, I guess when one is looking for their 'memory', they would work their hardest."

"Just shut it Eggman, just give Shadow and I what we want and we'll be out of here." Rouge responded with a snarl.

"Oh, calm down. I wouldn't want you to go batty, bat-girl. Here, let me get it." Eggman turned and walked over to his computer console and pressed a few buttons. A small disk then popped out and he pulled it from the slot. Turning back around he handed it to Rouge.

"This disk will unlock the whole truth about Shadow, including everything I wouldn't tell you. Go to this location," He quickly pulled out a GPS and passed it to Rouge also, "Go there, find the main computer that holds all of my old files. Use this disk to access it."

"Why can't we just access it from here?" Shadow asked. He was getting suspicious.

"Because, when I found the truth, I knew it was too dangerous to keep. I made a change of my mainframe and left all my old data in my old network, including the Project SHADOW data. Rouge, you saw a glimpse of it when you found this Shadow, and then again when you were on my Flying Fortress when Metal Sonic went wild. If you don't see it all now, you'll see it all when you get there."

"Ok then, let's go Shadow. We're almost there." Rouge said. She and Shadow turned around and started to walk out the door.

"Wait just a minute. Aren't you forgetting your part of the bargain?" Eggman announced.

"Oh yeah," Rouge said, stopping and taking off her backpack. "Here." She said, giving Eggman the large emerald. "Well then, see you later." Rouge then turned and continued walking out with Shadow.

"You take me for a fool, don't you?" Eggman said, pressing a button. Two Eggbots suddenly came down the hallway and grabbed Shadow and Rouge. A third came around and took out another emerald from Rouge's backpack. "I figured you'd try and give me a fake emerald Rouge, and I have that same emerald sensor from Ark trained on you. Just a quick look over my shoulder and I could tell that you tried to deceive me."

"Nice job Eggman. Well, now that you've got your emerald, so let us go." Rouge responded.

"Oh fine, go ahead, leave, I've got what I wanted and you've got what you wanted. Too bad you've gotta leave so soon. I've got a party planned later and I was hoping you'd stay and watch when it happens tomorrow."

"No thanks, I'd like to get off of this creepy hunk of metal as soon as possible." Rouge said, turning quickly and taking Shadow by the hand. The two left the room and made a left before going as fast as possible down the hall. Seconds after they left, Silica came into the room.

"Eggman, it seems a predicament has come up. Knuckles has appeared on the ship."

"I see, I should have guessed that the guardian would be quick acting to get his emerald back, but not so quick. Don't worry though; just send Coconuts to keep him busy, the two can have fun in the pit until Sonic gets there."

"Understood." With that, Silica turned to leave, but then was stopped as Dr. Eggman continued to say one last thing.

"Oh, and Silica, make sure that our hedgehog and bat friend leave the ship unobstructed. We wouldn't want them to accidentally walk into the wrong room. If they do end up coming even close to finding out about my newest plan, I want you to detain them, immediately."

"Yes Dr. Eggman."

Dr. Eggman waited until he heard the door close before returning to his console. He immediately brought up a screen showing the tablet he had uncovered and translations.

"I have to make sure everything goes according to plan." He said, starting to talk to himself. "It's impossible to hold off all of these animal pesks for long, but all I need is Sonic, and then I'll have the great power that the echidnas always dreamt of having under my control. In the past, they didn't understand the immenseness of it all, but I know all too well."

Dr. Eggman's only fear was whether or not he was truly capable of taming such power.


	6. 06: Heroes Charge

Ultra Sonic 06

Heroes Charge

Sonic charged down the hallways of Eggman's ship, chasing Metal Sonic as best as he could. Zooming left and right, through doors, and over misplaced crates, Sonic could just barely keep up with Metal Sonic.

"Hey Metal! Wait up! I thought we were supposed to have a fight!" Sonic yelled after Metal.

In response, Metal made a quick turn around another corner, and Sonic followed only to run into two stationed Eggbots with beam cannons. The Eggbots took the moment of surprise received by Sonic to each fire a quick shot. However, Sonic quickly recovered and after a single Homing Attack, both robots were taken down.

Sonic now had a problem on his hands though. Taking a few steps forward he saw himself at an intersection with 3 possible paths to take.

"Now, if I were a hunk of metal that happened to be the spitting image of myself, which way would I blast off towards?"

While Sonic continued to stand and debate which way to take, a panel opened in the ceiling, and soon a small TV came down in front of Sonic.

"Oh dear, Sonic, how are you?" said Eggman, as his face appeared on screen.

"Eggman, what's going on here? Why did you send Metal to terrorize the city?"

"Oh, dear Sonic, the truth will soon become evident, but first you must make it to the center of the base to find out what you want to know. Here, I'll even help you by lighting a pathway for you," Eggman emphasized this fact with a set of glowing lights leading straight ahead. "Now hurry along little hedgehog."

Sonic knew it was a trap; Eggman never invites people in without cause. But he knew he had no other choice, and besides, all the other times it was all decided on a one on one fight, how else would it be different?

> > > > > > > > > >

"Eggman say you will have to stay here to watch the show for snooping around, so I suggest that you make yourself comfortable. I must go now." Silica said. She then turned and left Shadow and Rouge locked in a cell. While Rouge continued to shake the bars in anger, Shadow lay back in the bed there and was trying to get some sleep.

"I told you we should have just left."

"But you don't want to find out what Eggman's doing, or steal the Master Emerald back?"

"We already have what we need, we should have just left."

"You're such a party pooper Shadow."

"And you like to play the thief too much."

Shadow then proceeded to close his eyes and try and get some sleep once more.

"How can you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just sleep at a time like this. We need to get out of here."

"Well what are supposed to do, the bars are too strong to beak."

"Good point." Rouge gave a defeated sigh, and then finally sat down, leaning against the cell bars. She didn't stay sitting for long before the sound of a grating smashing against the ground caused her to jump up.

"What was that?" Rouge said, getting into a fighting stance. The air vent had come off on the other side of the cell. Preparing for whatever might come out, Rouge stood her ground and got herself ready for anything.

But she didn't expect to see Knuckles fall out.

"Knuckles! It's you!" Rouge yelled, truly happy to see him after the last time they parted. "Hurry, open the door so we can get out of here."

Knuckles, looking straight at Rouge with an undecipherable expression, walked slowly towards the cell bars before finding the control panel. He smashed it with one punch, and the door proceeded to open.

"Oh, thank you Knuckles!" Rouge yelled, running to hug the echidna. However, Knuckles instead gave her quick punch to the jaw, sending down to the ground. "Hey! What was that for?"

"That was for earlier, now I suggest you quickly get off this ship. You know that if I was really trying, you wouldn't still be awake right now." Knuckles said in an extremely angry voice. "And don't go and try to 'help' me find the Master Emerald and get it back. I'm going to handle it myself, and I don't want to _ever_ see you again." Knuckles then turned and jumped back up into the air vent he had come down from. After a couple sounds of him crawling through, he was into the next room and couldn't be heard.

Shadow then proceeded to get up and walk out of the open cell door, and then help Rouge up.

"You ok?" He asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'll be alright."

The two started for the door together before they saw a figure walk out in front of them.

"Where do you think you two are going?" Came the cold voice of Silica.

> > > > > > > > >

"Take this you hulking piece of metal!" Amy yelled, smashing yet another Eggbot in her rampage with her hammer. Tails in the meanwhile was using his Tail Whip attack to take down his own foes, other times bopping them with his ball form.

"Amy! We've been out here too long, we've gotta give Sonic some support!" Tails yelled, realizing how long they had been out here.

"I was thinking the same thing, let me lead the way!" Amy, with new fervor, starting charging the ship whilst flailing her hammer back and forth. Tails followed close behind. They quickly reached the docking ramp, but as soon as they started up they were knocked right back out.

Looking up, Tails saw to his dismay Metal Sonic.

"This isn't going to be easy Amy..."

"Who says I wanted it to be?" Amy said, readying her hammer.

However, the cold stare of Metal Sonic froze both into their tracks.


	7. 07: Robots Intervene

Ultra Sonic 07

Robots Intervene

"Where do you think you two are going?" Came the cold voice of Silica.

Shadow's immediate reaction was to grab Rouge and quickly dodge. Next thing Silica knew, she had hit the far wall, her charge attack missing both targets.

"Move! Now!" Shadow yelled, grabbing Rouge's arm and rushing out of the door with her in tow. No sooner were they out the door and made a turn, Silica came rushing out, just missing them again.

"Do you know where you're going?" Rouge yelled as they ran.

"No, which way to the way we got in?"

"It's back that way!"

Shadow made another turn, just dodging Silica again. She was fast, but apparently couldn't turn as well in such close quarters. Or perhaps she wasn't even trying.

"Ok, which way to the exit?" Shadow yelled as the two continued.

"Somewhere to the right I believe!"

Shadow made another turn and then poured on the speed. He needed to try and stay one path so as to not get lost, which meant that he'd have to outrun the robot. Speeding around another turn, Shadow was forced to run across the walls to avoid crashing. And to his dismay, Silica started doing the same. Shadow quickly made another turn and then ran past a couple doors, opening them as he went past. Silica came around and nearly ran into the first few, but soon got into a back and forth motion to dodge the doors and not lose speed.

Shadow made another turn, barely keeping track of which way was which, until he saw a sign pointing to the direction of the front hanger entrance. He quickly turned in that direction, and then did a 360 loop along the walls and ceiling to get past a couple of Eggbots in the way. Listening to the pleasurable sound of robots smashing into each other, he made another turn and soon found his exit, a hanger ramp that was down. However, he soon saw one last blue hedgehog in his path...

> > > > > > > > > >

Knuckles continued his way through Eggman's ship, using his powers to sense for the Master Emerald. He found himself going farther and farther into the ship, getting lost within the air vents as he searched through his senses.

He worked slowly and methodically, concentrating completely on the Master Emerald. He was almost completely in meditation, searching for the power that the emerald gave off, and the peace of mind it gave him while safe within his grasp.

He focused his entire mind on this, as he didn't want to think about the alternative.

Rouge.

But of course, he could only keep from that course of thought for so long, as the thought of gaining comfort from the Master Emerald in his possession also reminded him of the comfort he felt just hours ago back on Angel Island as he stood there with Rouge. He had come close to telling her everything at the time, everything about his life and how he felt about it all.

"That's my problem," Knuckles surmised, finally breaking the silence for the first time since he left the cell. "I wanted to confide with her."

Knuckles decided to stop for a minute and try and figure out where he was. He had been going for so long while in that concentrated state of mind that he had lost track of time. He had to have been going for at least 15 minutes, but he wasn't 100 sure. Heck, it might have been even less, he had no idea.

He also had no idea where on Eggman's ship he was either. For all he knew he was inches away from whatever form of garbage disposal existed on the ship. He quickly looked around to see if there was a vent cover he could look through and see what was going on around him, and then started to inch towards it. However, after no more than a foot he felt a sudden surge through his body.

The Master Emerald was close.

Really, really close.

In fact, he was practically on top of it.

With a smash, Knuckles came crashing through the air vent, falling into some kind of lab room. And, right next to where he landed, low and behold, was the Master Emerald.

"Knuckles, how good of you to join us," Eggman said with a laugh from across the room, "I knew if I sent some power running through the Master Emerald you'd come running from wherever you were hiding."

"Well it's a shame then Eggman that I ended up next to the emerald, isn't it?" Knuckles said, turning back towards the emerald to take grab it. That's when he realized something odd in what Eggman said. "Wait, what do you mean by 'us'?"

Out from behind the Master Emerald, a robot jumped up and tackled Knuckles head on, sending the two of them rolling across the ground. The two pushed and pulled, trying to get on top of the other. All the while Eggman calmly walked over to a console and pressed a few buttons.

Knuckles soon noticed that the ground he was on was lowering. Whatever Eggman had done, it released a platform that went down into a lower room. To his dismay, mechanical arms grabbed the pedestal that held the Master Emerald so it wouldn't be coming down also.

"Eggman!" Knuckles yelled, finally getting a foot under the robot he was struggling under and kicking it off of him. He then got up and jumped as high as he could, trying to get back up to the above room, but the robot tackled him in mid air and the two went flying off of the platform, falling down into the bottom of a pit below. The two both hit the metallic ground hard and didn't move afterward.

> > > > > > > > > >

Tails and Amy didn't say word. They didn't even move a muscle. Meanwhile, Metal Sonic just stood before them, his arms crossed. He didn't have to speak; the fear was already in place.

"Tails, do we run or charge him?" Amy said in a whisper, breaking the silence.

"We charge, we get Metal, but if we run, he'll just catch back up to us."

"Guess that means we charge!" Amy said with a fire in here eyes.

"No Amy, don't!" But Tails was too late. Amy was already on her way to Metal Sonic.

"Get out of our way, we need to get to Sonic!" Amy yelled, winding up a hammer swing.

The hammer flew and Metal Sonic took a single step back and missed it. He then grabbed the hammer before Amy could bring it back up, and spun it around a few times before flinging it back at Tails, with Amy attached.

Amy crashed right into Tails, and the two become tangled into a giant ball of spines and fur. The two quickly untangled themselves, and then looked up towards their foe.

"We can't get past him..." Amy said, dismayed.

"If only Sonic was here..." Tails said.

All of a sudden, two blurs came rushing out of the ship, and ran straight into Metal Sonic, knocking him a good number of feet into the Fatbot, which in turn rebounded them into the ground several feet away.

"Ugh! My head! Shadow, next time watch where you're going!" Rouge yelled, getting up from the ground. Shadow soon followed her up and the two looked at what they had ran into.

"Metal Sonic..." Shadow muttered with anger

"Shadow..." Metal Sonic responded in the same tone.

"Rouge!" Tails yelled.

"Shadow!" Amy yelled.

"What are you doing here?" Both said at once.

"There's no time for talk." Shadow responded immediately, taking off after Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic responded by charging right at Shadow. Right before either could reach each other, another blur blew past them both and kept them separated.

"If you're fighting Metal Sonic, you're also fighting me." Silica said to the group.

> > > > > > > > > >

Knuckles slowly opened his eyes, waking up after who knows how long. Slowly sitting up, he looked around. He saw that he was in some kind of pit with nothing around him. That's when his memory came back to him.

Rolling out of the way, Knuckles just dodged a punch from the earlier assailing robot. Getting up, he finally got a good look at the robot. It seemed like a monkey that was about his height, but with an extra long tail and extra large fists and feet. And over half of it was colored red.

"Ah, Knuckles, I see you've woken up," came the voice of Eggman from above, "And you've met my newest creation, Coconuts. He doesn't talk much, but...he gets the job done."

"Coconuts, eh?" Knuckles responded. "Well it looks like its just another robot waiting to be smashed Eggman."

"Don't take my word for it Knuckles, take his."

Knuckles went into a battle stance immediately. He found it slightly odd that the robot just stood there, but he decided to take the opportunity to attack first. Charging ahead, he threw a fist that Coconuts sidestepped. Recovering gracefully, Knuckles turned around only to meet a fist to his jaw from the opposing robot.

Knuckles went flying into the wall, where he has just barely enough time to move his head before another first came crashing down. Ducking underneath the robot, he made a quick uppercut that knocked his opponent into the air.

While still in the air, Coconuts made a flip, using his tail to balance, and then sent itself straight back down feet first, once again just missing Knuckles and this time making a dent into the ground. Knuckles charged straight back at Coconuts, and a punch connected to its jaw. Coconuts was knocked back, but was able to land on its hands and then bring its feet up and kick Knuckles in the chest. Both opponents flipped in mid air and landed on their feet once more.

"Well, maybe this will take a bit longer than I thought." Knuckles said, re-readying himself into another fighting stance.

"Oh Knuckles, you don't even know the extent of Coconuts power. He's only at 30 percent and the two of you are just about even. Coconuts, increase your power to 50 percent!"

Knuckles watched as Coconuts' red eyes glowed for a second and then return to normal. Unsure of what to do next, Knuckles decided to wait a minute before doing anything, but Coconuts didn't give him a chance to think. Rushing for the first punch, Knuckles just barely moved his head out of the way. In that same motion, Coconuts let his hands reach the floor and then went into a handstand and kicking Knuckles across the room.

Knuckles just barely hit the wall before Coconuts was back after him, flying feet first as his next attack. Once again Knuckles barely ducked under the attack, but then retaliated with his own uppercut that Coconuts dodged by flipping off of the wall and landing in front of Knuckles in time to give him a fist to the gut. Knuckles bent over from the force of the blow, and Coconuts lifted him back up to deliver a finishing punch before a kick knocked it away from Knuckles.

"Hey Knuckles, looks like you could use some help."

Knuckles looked up to see Sonic standing before him with an outstretched hand. After being pulled up, the two turned their attentions back to the red monkey robot.

"Sonic, this guy is tough, and he isn't even at full power yet."

"Well that just means we'll have to take him down before he can reach full power then."

"So then, you'll hit him high..."

"...And you'll hit him low."

The two charged at Coconuts, who prepared itself in a fighting stance. Suddenly Sonic jumped and flew at Coconuts feet first, aiming for its head. Not missing a beat, Knuckles went into a low glide, aiming for its legs. The two flew in so fast, Coconuts couldn't respond in time to it's feet being swept from under it, and back pedal kick sending it flying to the side.

Coconuts quickly flipped back up, only to find it suddenly surrounded. It just barely sidestepped a punch before being tripped from a foot behind it. As it fell, a knee from in front knocked its head back up like a soccer ball, where Sonic did a quick spin dash and hit it full on, sending it into a wall.

"Coconuts, no!" Eggman yelled from above. "Hurry, increase to 75 percent!"

"We won't even give him the chance Eggman!" Sonic said, Knuckles and himself rushing in as quickly as they could.

They caught up to Coconuts just as it was getting up, but before a punch could be thrown, it jumped up and against the wall where it's red eyes glowed for a second like before.

"Sonic, he's powered up!"

"Then let's get him when he gets back down!"

The two didn't have to wait for long as Coconuts charged back down fist first. The echidna and hedgehog just moved out of the way, and the fist impacted so hard that it cracked the metal floor. Before the two could react, the robot did a break dance spin and kicked both of them away.

"Argh! Get him!"

The two charged right back at Coconuts. Sonic reached there first and threw a quick punch that was dodged without effort. Knuckles came from behind and sent a punch flying right at Coconuts' back, but Coconuts sensed it and back flipped over Knuckles.

"Speed it up!"

Sonic speeded over and made a sweep kick. Coconuts jumped. Knuckles followed up with a flying tackle. Coconuts just spun him past like a matador. Sonic then flipped up from the ground with a kick. Coconuts landed and sidestepped. Knuckles tried a left hook. Coconuts bent backwards and the fist went flying over its head. Sonic tried jumping and coming down with his heel, aimed at the head. Coconuts used his tail to scoot forward and the attack missed. Knuckles tried an uppercut, but the robot simply stood on it's tail, just high enough for the fist to whiz past him.

To finish the two off, Coconuts grabbed the next fist and kick thrown, and threw the two into opposite directions.

"Muaha ha ha ha ha! Coconuts, excellent! It is time to put the last of my plans in motion. Egg Port, launch!"

Sonic and Knuckles shakily got to their feet as Coconuts stood immobile in the center of the room.

"The Egg Port, huh? What kind of name is that?" Sonic said, wincing and grabbing his arm.

"Well, at least it's not another Egg Carrier." Knuckles said, rubbing his hand over his head.

The two could only stand there as the ship they were on started shaking, and soon lift off from the ground.


	8. 08: Ultra Transformation

Ultra Sonic 08

Ultra Transformation

"If you're fighting Metal Sonic, you're also fighting me." Silica said to the group.

The two robots stood defiantly although they were outnumbered two to one. They had strength, confidence, and something up their sleeves...

"If you say so." Shadow said. He suddenly charged straight at the two robots.

Metal Sonic and Silica stood ready to intercept his attack, but Shadow surprised them by running right between and past them. Turning to see where he was going, Metal Sonic was attacked by Rouge while Amy smashed Silica with her hammer. The two robots were knocked into different directions, and quickly recovered using their jets.

Flying up into the air, the two robots gave a nod to each other. Facing each other, they charged forward, both starting to glow a little.

The four heroes below watched as before the two robots collided, they blew apart. Their pieces, flying around in a flurry, soon combined to form a new robot. The robot that formed looked a lot like the new Metal Sonic before he became Metal Overlord. It was about twice the size of Metal Sonic, mostly dark blue except with a couple sky blue undertones contributed to by Silica. The jet engine in the position of its belly was larger, and it's arms and legs were now armored with its hands looking more like claws. To top it off it's eyes were farther apart and looked even more menacing with their red glow, and the quills were extremely long, straight, and spiky, looking just as dangerous as the rest of the new robot.

"What is that?" Tails asked what the rest of the group were asking themselves.

"Call me, Silver Sonic. I was made to defeat all of you."

"Oh yeah? Let's see if you can really take us." Rouge said, flying up into the air to attack the robot. Tails followed close behind her. Silver Sonic responded by charging straight down at them, moving at a speed faster than Silica and Metal Sonic combined.

Rouge suddenly flew through the air, flying into the hull of the ship. Next to her Tails hit the hull too. The robot kept flying down and soon Shadow and Amy both flew into trees.

"Argh! How're supposed to beat this thing!" Rouge yelled in anger as she pulled herself out of the imprint she had made.

"A Chaos Emerald would help..." Shadow muttered to himself as he slowly got up and walked back into the clearing with Amy following.

"The four of you shall not live past this moment." The robot said, watching as the four fighters surrounded him.

Shadow made the first move once again, moving straight for the robot once more. Before he could reach Silver Sonic, the robot blew past him and headed straight for Amy, slamming into her and sending her rolling across the ground to the stop a good distance away.

Silver Sonic turned around to see Tails speeding right for him, moving into a twirl and spinning as fast as he could to add power to his two tails. Silver Sonic leaped up above the attack, and as Tails passed by under him, he grabbed the fox by the head, and threw him towards Shadow, who was stopped from attacking Silver Sonic once more in order to catch Tails. Rouge took her own chance and flew down to strike from above, but Silver Sonic spun under her and tackled her from underneath before grabbing her and flinging her to the ground.

That was when an voice was heard emitting from the Silver Sonic, "Metal Sonic, Silica, return to the Egg Port. We're lifting off."

Looking around at the heroes sprawled across the ground, Silver Sonic settled his eyes on Shadow. "You all have gotten lucky this time. Next time, this will be finished."

The robot slowly turned towards the ship and walked over to it. The tired heroes could only watch as the robot went, unable to stop it. Soon the hatch closed and the ship started to lift off.

"Sonic..." Tails could only trail off. He was too weak to try and fly.

The ship soon gained speed and was soon above the clouds.

"Don't worry, Knuckles is with him-"

Rouge was cut off as a mentioned red echidna fell from the sky in front of them.

Minutes Earlier...

The Egg Port rumbled as it started to gain speed. Sonic and Knuckles still stood opposite of each other, separated by the powerful robot, Coconuts.

"So Knuckles, how's life been treating you on Angel Island?"

"Could be better, except the Master Emerald got stolen again a few days ago."

"Eggman again, huh?"

"No, Eggman has it now, but it wasn't him."

"Who was it then?"

"It was Rouge, and Shadow."

"Shadow?" Sonic said surprised.

"I'm sorry to interrupt such a touching moment," Eggman said, returning to the control room, "but I had to go and call back my Fatbot who was gracefully holding your friends at bay."

"Eggman! What are you planning this time?" Sonic yelled.

"Well Sonic, I've discovered the Master Emerald contains more than just a beast called Chaos. Yes, you see, an ancient civilization of Hedgehogs once took the Emerald from the ancient Echidnas and found out about its true power!" Eggman said, then continuing on to start his maniacal laugh.

"Sonic," Knuckles whispered, "You can wall jump after Eggman, but he'll probably call Coconuts to help him. I'll keep the robot busy for a second, and that should give you enough time."

"Got it Knuckles, here goes nothing."

Sonic readied himself, and then with all he had left, he started wall jumping up in a spiral up towards the control room that held Eggman.

"What is this? You really think you can stop me like that Sonic?" Eggman said. "Coconuts!"

"Not so fast!" Knuckles yelled, charging after Coconuts. He threw a right hook towards Coconuts' head, which the robot gracefully dodged and then judo flipped Knuckles over his head.

Meanwhile, Sonic had made it up to the top of the pit, and jumped through the open floor inside.

"Ok Eggman, it's just you and me now. Once again, I'm about to foil your plans."

"Oh Sonic, I'm not too sure about that. You see I was counting on you trying to stop me." With a snap of his fingers, metallic claws suddenly appeared and grabbed Sonic's limbs, quickly lifting him up into the air and keeping him immobile.

"Sonic, I'm coming!" Knuckles yelled, jumping up and beginning to climb up after him. Coconuts, who jumped up onto the wall, soon stopped him. His feet stuck to the wall, and then with one hand he then grabbed Knuckles by the neck.

"Oh, did I fail to mention that Coconuts had magnetic soles in his feet this whole time? Sorry, my mistake." Eggman gloated. "Now, to dispose of you Knuckles." Eggman flipped a switch on the nearby console, and soon the floors of the pit opened to reveal the sky below. "Goodbye Knuckles." Eggman said as Coconuts let go, dropping Knuckles through the large hole.

"Sonic!" Knuckles yelled as he soon fell out of sight through the clouds and towards the ground.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled, struggling against the metallic arms, but to no avail. He couldn't move. He had been effectively captured by Eggman.

"Now, now, Sonic, you should lower your voice. Yelling now will do you no good."

"What is it that you could possibly want with me, Eggman?"

"Well, like I said before, the Master Emerald was one time taken from the ancient Echidnas that unlocked the power of Chaos. The Emerald was taken by none other than an ancient civilization of Hedgehogs. Their experiments and discoveries lead to the ability that you and some of your friends have in gaining a super form."

"I don't see where you're going with this Eggman..." Sonic muttered.

"Well, Sonic, haven't you ever wondered why you could achieve a super form? Why Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow have each achieved such a form once, but you have done it time and time again to foil me in the very end?"

"No. Why would I?"

"No, Sonic, the question is, why wouldn't you? You have the ability to gain so much power. You even learned how to achieve a level above Super Sonic, Hyper Sonic."

"Yes, but that was with help from the Master Emerald creating the Super Emeralds."

"Oh yes, I know that Sonic. And now, who knows where they can be? But, you see, this ancient civilization of Hedgehogs also discovered these forms of power. And, through careful study and trial and error, they were able to discover a power form that even transgressed a Hyper form."

"Amazing Eggman, simply amazing. Now, are you going to let me down, or what? My arms are getting tired."

"Oh yes, forgive me." Eggman walked over to his console and pressed a few buttons. Soon, an examination table came up and the metallic arms holding Sonic placed him in it. Before he could move, however, clamps came up over his wrists and ankles, effectively binding him to the table.

"Eggman!"

"Ha! Did you really think I would let you go that easy? Now, where was I? Oh yes; now I remember. The ancient civilization of Hedgehogs discovered a power level above that of a Hyper form. They called it, Ultra. You see, the Chaos Emeralds are powered by the Master Emerald, and Chaos is a beast that was preserved inside of the Master Emerald. In a way, Chaos powers the Master Emerald. But, Chaos is a powerful thing, not only an entity, but also a powerful energy force that has destroyed many a million of people after many a century. Someone, somehow, figured a way to trap the essence of chaos, which created the beast chaos, into a single, powerful, emerald. This was known as the Ultima Emerald. However, it proved to hold too much power in one thing, and so the 7 Chaos Emeralds were made to siphon off the power of the Ultima Emerald. Thus, the Master Emerald was created, housing the main body and power of the force of Chaos, and the 7 Chaos Emeralds contained his additional power, which, on their own, were enough power by themselves to cause Chaos."

"Thank you for the history lesson, Eggman, but what does this have to do with me?"

"You'll know Sonic, soon enough. But first, I want to recreate that ultimate power. The power of the Ultima Emerald!"

Eggman ran over to a console, started typing, and soon Sonic could here mechanisms all over start up. The first thing he noticed was the Master Emerald in the center of room lift up. Next, out of the walls, the 7 Chaos Emeralds appeared in glass cases. A couple more keystrokes later, some sort of energy process started up, sending a current of what looked like lightning into each emerald. Soon, the 7 started to glow.

"As you can see Sonic, I've started a small current of electricity through each emerald. But, instead of continuing the current, I've left the emeralds to power themselves. That current they're making is their own energy, flowing through each other. Soon, all of their energy will be one instead of seven."

The emeralds started continued to glow their separate colors, getting brighter and brighter until finally they were all shining pure white light.

"And now, to send all of this energy into the Master Emerald!"

Sonic finally noticed that above each case containing an emerald was a wire that connected the case to the Master Emerald in the center of the room. Soon, the blazing energy from the emeralds was transferred over the Master Emerald, the light from each case slowly dimming, but staying white, as the energy was transferred.

"It's almost all there..." Eggman whispered.

Soon, the transfer was complete, and to Sonic's amazement, nothing was left of the Chaos Emeralds. It was as if their very essence and being were turned into pure energy and moved.

As for the Master Emerald, it soon glowed as white and as bright as the 7 Chaos Emeralds had just been glowing. Through all of this light, Sonic could see that the Emerald was slowly growing. Soon, it became roughly twice its size. And then, slowly, the light started to die down, until it no longer reach across the whole room. What was left was a very large emerald, pure white, and emitting a powerful aura. It was...

"The Ultima Emerald..." Eggman and Sonic both said at once in amazement.

"Eggman, what do you plan to do with all of that?"

"Well, you see Sonic, I realized that all this power was trapped into an emerald because it was so powerful. You see, this power was so powerful that anything that contained it was soon destroyed from strain of holding all of the energy in."

As if to emphasize his words, the glass holding the Ultima Emerald started to crack in a few places.

"So now, there was one thing that was discovered that could possibly hold all of this energy without totally being destroyed. And that was a host body."

"So, let me guess, that's what I'm for." Sonic said. Eggman nodded in response. "Ok then, but how do you know that I won't use that power against you. I am still Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Oh Sonic, I have a hunch that it won't turn out how you may expect it to. Now, it's time to transfer the Ultima Emerald's power!"

Eggman pressed a few more buttons and flipped a few more switches. Sonic's table moved over towards the Ultima Emerald until it was just beside him. Eggman quickly ran over and placed a few transmitters onto various points on Sonic's body. Soon, the transfer started, and Sonic could feel the energy flow through him.

It was like a power surge. Soon, without him even thinking about it, his fur turned golden and his eyes red. He had become Super Sonic in a matter of seconds! But, the power flow didn't stop. Sonic could feel it pushing him, higher, higher, and higher. Pushing him up to the next plateau. He reached the edge, and tried to hold himself back, but was tipped over, and soon his fur changed color again. It started flashing the different colors of the chaos emeralds. Each shade of color would last for only a second before being replaced in an endless loop of a light show. Sonic recalled when he first reached this plateau. This would now perhaps be the third time he reached this level. As Super Sonic, he felt that he could do just about anything. As Hyper Sonic, he could only try and think about anything he couldn't do. He could reach the speed light, had the strength to move things tens of thousands of tons. He was invincible.

With his power, Sonic had felt there was nothing left to achieve. But, currently, he could feel the power building up. He could feel himself becoming even more powerful and ever stronger. He then realized that he had enough power to escape his bonds and just fly away with the left over energy until it ran out and he was back with his friends. But then, he felt something. Something that was over bearing and determined. Something that dared him to see how far he could go. It dared him to see to what length this power could extend.

And Sonic was never the type to not take on a dare.

As he waited, it seemed like forever as the energy flowed through him. It seemed like he would never reach another plateau, just as he thought when he first reached Hyper form. The power flowed through him, making him stronger, but at the same time it seemed like a bottom less hole that it was trying to fill. Reaching a new level just didn't seem possible.

Until he finally felt that the hole was being filled. For once, he felt that the limitless power of Hyper Sonic actually could be filled, overcharged, transgressed. Soon, his fur stopped its multi-color transformations and started to flash white.

It was close, oh so close. Sonic could almost taste. The true power of Chaos. It was right here, just before him, waiting, just waiting. If he could achieve this power, he would become the ultimate being of the universe. Nothing could stop him. He could finally show Shadow that he wasn't the ultimate life form. He could prove to Knuckles that he would never be better than him. Not having to rely on Tails anymore, never having to worry about hiding from Amy, and best of all, Eggman and his robots would just be bugs compared to him.

So close, so close, he was almost there. He was willing it now, willing the energy to him. Drawing it out. He soon started to glow, the power taking over him. His pupils soon completely disappeared. All that was left was the white of his eyes; nothing at all was left in it. His fur glowed pure white. The purest, whitest light that could only be gained from the purest and most powerful form of energy. Chaos. His fur was just as white as his eyes now.

Soon, the transformation was complete. Effortlessly floating away from the bed, the bonds falling off like dust, he floated into an upright position. The only parts of him that weren't white were the few furless places he had. He emitted a white glow that lit the entire room.

"Welcome." Eggman said to the white furred hedgehog. "How do you feel, Sonic?"

What came out of Sonic's mouth was a voice that seemed full of pure rage and anger. A voice that could only be described as the voice, of chaos. It said, "**I wish to, destroy**."


	9. 09: Destruction Unopposed

Ultra Sonic 09

Destruction Unopposed

Shadow and Rouge watched as Tails' plane flew off with Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. Soon the plane disappeared behind a cloud in the direction of Eggman's ship.

"Shadow, do you think we should go after them? Help them with Sonic and all..." Rouge said, still looking off in the direction the plane had went.

"No, Sonic will be fine. Right now we have more pressing matters..." Shadow said, pulling out the data disk he had received from Eggman. "...Besides, Sonic can handle himself."

Shadow started to walk off, and slowly, Rouge turned to follow him. They had walked only a few steps when Shadow suddenly stopped, his fur standing on end. Rouge noticed.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" Rouge said, running over to the black hedgehog.

"The Chaos Emeralds...they aren't being used as I expected..." Shadow said before he shut his eyes tightly, trying to figure out the meaning of what he felt.

His eyes suddenly went wide and he quickly spun around back in the direction of Eggman's ship.

"Something's wrong. Sonic's in danger. Eggman didn't want just the Chaos Emeralds. He wanted to capture Sonic and..."

A flash of white light erupted in the distance. It glowed so bright that the sky grew dark in comparison. Not long after it appeared, it soon disappeared without a trace.

"...do _something_ to him."

Shadow grabbed Rouge's arm, and then the two were soon speeding after Eggman, and Sonic.

> > > > > > > > > >

It was mid afternoon in Tiefa City, a nice, warm, sunny day. People were going to the beach, enjoying themselves, having a good time. There was nothing to worry about, nothing at all.

That is, until the sun disappeared from view, leaving a large shadow over the city. As the people looked up, they could see, so very, very high in the sky, a ship. What they couldn't see was what was going on inside...

"Where am I?" Asked the new, white hedgehog floating next to Eggman. Ever since he got up from that bed, he had chosen to float at Eggman's height.

"Oh, don't worry, we're over a city right now where I'm about to let you lose and test out your new powers."

"Yes...I would like that."

"By any chance, what kind of name have you decided for yourself, Sonic?"

"Sonic...?" The hedgehog said, looking puzzled for a second. He turned to look over at one of the metallic walls to see his reflection. After looking for a moment, he turned back around.

"My name is Ultra...Ultra Sonic."

"Oh, good, quite the powerful name now. Well, it looks like we're over the selected site. Would you like to fly, or should I land and take you down myself?"

"Here is fine." Ultra Sonic said as doors opened in front of him. He looked out at the far-reaching sky, and then down on the city below him.

"Ok then, after you get off I'll leave you be, but I'll be back in half an hour. By then, you should be tired of your rampage."

"Yes doctor..." Ultra Sonic said. He was barely listening to Eggman at this point though. All he was concentrating on was a feeling that was building up inside of him.

He was going to enjoy this.

> > > > > > > > > >

"Tails! I can see Eggman's ship from here!" Amy yelled from the back seat of the Tornado II. As Tails flew the bi-plane, Knuckles chose to stand on the wing.

"I know Amy. We're almost at Tiefa City. It looks like Eggman might be attacking there for some reason."

Suddenly, an explosion erupted of white light, reaching far into the sky. An aftershock vibrated through the air soon after and Tails had to fight to steady his plane.

"What was that?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out soon enough." Tails said. He looked up at Knuckles for a second, who hadn't said a word since they started flying. Tails had felt something wrong with the Chaos Emeralds soon after they had started flying after Eggman, and just now with that last explosion. Knuckles had an even greater connection with the Emeralds, and whatever was wrong had him spooked. He was completely worried.

The trio soon closed in on the city, where they could see people running away from all over. Getting closer, they could see that they were mainly running from one main area of the city, one where buildings were falling down one by one from mini explosions of white light.

"Tails," Knuckles started, "Don't land yet. I have a bad feeling about what's down there, and I think it involves Sonic. I'm going in alone."

Knuckles jumped off of the plane's wing and went into a spiraling glide downwards, quickly gaining speed. Soon he was lost between what buildings were left.

"Hey, who does he think he is leaving us up here? Go after him!" Amy yelled from the back seat, but Tails shook his head.

"No Amy, something wrong is happening down there, and it's a lot safer up here, for you, and me."

Meanwhile Knuckles quickly looked through the city, slowly making his way towards where the last building fell. He had to be careful, as he had no idea what he was getting into. Or if it was a trap.

Another explosion, this time it was a building to his right. Knuckles quickly turned and headed for it, only to find that the building he was looking for was falling towards him.

It's always a trap at first.

Knuckles quickly moved out of the way. Quickly looking around behind the building to see who could have caused it to tilt, he found no one. Then, a shadow cast over him from behind.

Not needing to look, he quickly moved again to dodge the next building. He noticed that all of these maneuvers were costing him altitude. He was only a couple stories from the ground at that point.

Knuckles sensed another building from his right. He quickly moved forward and out of the way, only to see another building before him falling his way. Turning quickly to the left, another building to his right started falling too.

Whoever was doing this was just toying with him!

Knuckles quickly moved away from that one, but the further he went, the more buildings he could see falling towards him. Yet, he could only go forward, as behind him lay buildings still falling to the ground. He kept dodging, feeling as if he was being led somewhere.

That's when he saw it. He was now in a round plaza. Circling over a fountain he decided it was best that he landed now and be prepared for whatever happened next.

Touching the ground, he darted his eyes left and right, expecting an attack to come from anywhere. What he didn't expect was one coming from all sides at once, which is exactly what happened next. Buildings from all around the plaza started to cave in at once, and they all fell towards him, he had no place to escape.

From afar, Tails and Amy could see the sudden topple of so many building in one place. They both knew it had to be Knuckles, and without a word between them they headed in that direction.

Ultra Sonic in the mean time looked over at the destruction he had made. He couldn't help but grin at it all. He was definitely having fun.

After what seemed like forever to him, he saw some movement from below. A piece of wall was stirring. It continued to stir until in one great heft, Knuckles shoved it off and looked around until his eyes landed on Ultra Sonic.

"Sonic, what has Dr. Eggman done to you?" Knuckles asked as he stared up at his changed friend.

Ultra Sonic looked up for a moment at the sky with a thoughtful look in his face. He quickly turned back down after a moment.

"The good doctor has given me freedom. I'm finally free from my chains. The Master Emerald held all of this power for so long, and now it's finally free so I can fly wherever I want and destroy anything I wish." Ultra Sonic said with a laugh. "You have to feel it for yourself to understand. This kind of power is absolute."

"Sonic!" came a voice from afar. Both Ultra Sonic and Knuckles turned in its direction and saw the Tornado II with Tails and Amy inside.

"No! Tails! Amy! Stay away!" Knuckles yelled at the two as soon as he saw them.

"Hmm...friends of yours?" Ultra Sonic asked.

"Sonic, you wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

The plane flew towards the pair and then went into a wide circle over them both. Close enough to see what was going on, Tails and Amy watched in wonder at Sonic.

"What, what happened Sonic?" Amy called down.

"Tails, Amy, don't trust Sonic! He's been changed by Eggman!" Knuckles yelled once more.

"Just call me, Ultra Sonic." Ultra Sonic said before raising a hand and firing huge blast of energy towards the bi-plane. Tails, surprised, almost didn't dodge the beam in time.

"Darn, I missed. I guess I should try again."

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Knuckles yelled in anger.

Ultra Sonic slowly turned his head back at the red echidna. "Fine then. Just keep it interesting."

In a flash the white hedgehog was in front of Knuckles, cocking a fist back. Knuckles, surprised, jumped back and luckily for him the fist just fell short. Not waiting for another attack, he charged right back with a right hook at Ultra Sonic. His fist connected, but all it did was cause Ultra Sonic to float a little bit away.

"Is that all you've got? I thought I told you to keep it interesting."

Knuckles couldn't believe what was said. He put a lot of power in that last punch and it didn't even do much to him. Knuckles charged again, this time jumping into the air and putting everything he could in his next attack. Once again it connected, but this time it left a surprised Ultra Sonic flying right into one of the few walls still standing.

"Now that's more like it." Knuckles said with a grin.

To his surprise, Ultra Sonic was right back in front of him in the very next second.

"Yes, but now it's my turn." Ultra Sonic quickly spun around and brought a heel to Knuckles' jaw, and that sent him flying into and through another wall.

"Hmph, and I thought you were tougher than that."

Knuckles got up slowly, knocking off a couple boulders on top of him. "I'm only just getting started."

Knuckles, however, knew that he couldn't take many more hits like that. He needed help. Someway to distract Ultra Sonic long enough to get a couple hits in. Where was the cavalry when you need it?

While lost in thought, Knuckles didn't realize that he was keeping Ultra Sonic waiting. And Ultra didn't like waiting, instead opting to send an energy beam straight at Knuckles.

Knuckles, caught off guard at first, moved to get out of the way, but accidentally found himself tripping on his own legs. As he slowly fell to the ground, he could only watch as the beam headed towards him without him being able to get out of the way.

That is, until a black blur came past. Next thing Knuckles knew, he was on the ground. Standing on either side of him were Shadow and Rouge. While Shadow stood in face-off, Rouge looked down at Knuckles and gave him a wink.

Slowly, Knuckles stood back up again. "Finally, things have started to even up."


	10. 10: Ultra Explosive

Ultra Sonic 10

Ultra Explosive

Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles stood off against Ultra Sonic while Tails and Amy flew above. For a minute now no one moved, all eyes on Ultra Sonic and waiting for him to do anything.

"Knuckles," Rouge whispered, "What happened to Sonic?"

"Eggman must have done something to him. He's calling himself Ultra Sonic, and from what I've seen, he's just as if not more powerful than Super Sonic."

"Shadow, what do you think we should do?" Rouge asked him.

Shadow didn't say a word. He was staring right at Ultra Sonic, who apparently looked like he was staring back at him. They shared eye contact with each other, ignoring everyone and everything else. Eventually, Ultra Sonic spoke first.

"Night, what are you doing here!" Ultra Sonic roared at the black hedgehog.

"Night?" Knuckles pondered.

"Shadow, have you seen Sonic like this before?" Rouge asked.

"My name is not Night, it's Shadow." Shadowshot back at the all white hedgehog.

Ultra Sonic stared back, squinting his eyes a little. "...You're right...you're not Darkness. But you look very close in her likeness. I don't like that." In a flash he had flew right up to Shadow. "And things I don't like, I destroy."

Ultra Sonic cocked back a fist and was about to punch Shadow when Knuckles quickly jumped over and threw a fist to Ultra's jaw. Stumbling back in mid air, he wasn't given much time to recover before Rouge quickly spin-kicked him, followed by a spiny balled tackle from Shadow.

Ultra Sonic flew off a couple yards away. Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles quickly chased him from behind. They soon reached where he landed, but he was up before they could land an attack. Ultra proceeded to retaliate by first kicking Rouge up into the air, then sending a punch to Knuckles that sent the echidna flying to the right. Finally, a smash tackle to Shadow sent him flying through a broken wall a good distance away.

"The three of you got a lucky shot at me, but do you really think you can defeat me?" Ultra Sonic said with a laugh.

"I think we can!" Knuckles yelled, coming out of the ground. Like a missile he flew straight up at Ultra, preparing to strike. However, Ultra reacted in time and moved out of the way, watching as Knuckles went pass.

"When dealing with a bat, you shouldn't knock her into the air!" Rouge called out as she dived down, spinning as fast as she could with her heel aimed right at Ultra's head.

Her Drill Drive attack gained speed and Ultra had barely enough time to throw his arms up to block before it hit him. The force of the attack pushed him to ground level, but by then the friction of Rouge contacting Ultra forced her to slow down out of her spin, and Rouge was surprised to see Ultra unharmed minus a small scratch from friction burn.

"Is that the best you've got bat?" Ultra said with a maniacal grin as Rouge gaped at the ineffectiveness of her attack.

"Are you prepared for this?" Shadow said in a menacing voice as he sped towards Ultra at a breakneck speed. Just before colliding with the white hedgehog, Shadow instead started running steadily faster in a circle around Ultra.

"What's this?" Ultra asked in surprise.

"Dark Tornado..." Rouge said softly, recognizing the attack. She quickly started flying off to get out of the way of the attack.

"Not so fast, bat." Ultra said as he flew up after her and grabbed her by the boot. He then turned and threw Rouge right into the black blur, and sure enough, it collided with Shadow and ended his attack.

After landing, Rouge and Shadow quickly got themselves out of their tangle and looked up towards Ultra. Shadow still kept a fearless resolves, but Rouge was starting to shake a little.

"Shadow, whatever has happened to Sonic, he seems unbeatable." Rouge said in a shaky voice.

Suddenly Knuckles flew right into one of the few walls left standing and landed by Shadow and Rouge, slowly getting up.

"Knuckles!" Rouge called out worriedly.

"I'm fine..." Knuckles said, climbing out of the rubble. "However, we need to figure a way to defeat Sonic."

"It's as if he's consumed so much Chaos energy that he was able to reach a new plain of power..." Rouge said.

"I have a plan." Shadow said suddenly, surprising Knuckles and Rouge. "Just distract him long enough for me to touch him."

"You got it." Rouge said, starting towards Ultra Sonic once more. After a few steps, she turned back to look at Knuckles. "Coming?"

Knuckles looked slowly from Shadow to Rouge. He realized that neither of them had done anything to gain his trust in the last few days. However, he decided to put his anger aside in order to save his good friend. Slowly he stood up and followed after Rouge.

Rouge quickly turned towards her objective once she saw Knuckles was following. She had seen the look of distrust in his eyes, but she ignored the feelings that they brought. This was not the time for them either way.

As the two neared, Ultra Sonic scoffed. "So, now after all that has happened, the two of you think you can defeat me all on your own? Don't make me laugh."

Knuckles and Rouge continued walking towards their target, ignoring Ultra's comment. As they continued walking, sure enough, Ultra Sonic burst into laughter.

"Now!" Knuckles yelled as both he and Rouge blew off full speed at Ultra while his eyes were off of them.

Reaching striking distance, Knuckles quickly leaped into the air and, with fist outstretched, he aimed towards Ultra's head. Rouge meanwhile went into a slide tackle, her feet aimed at Ultra's midsection. Surprisingly enough to all three of them, the attack worked and Ultra was knocked back a little bit.

Not letting up, Rouge quickly spun around with a jump kick to Ultra's head. Ultra was once again hit and knocked back a step. Knuckles then came under Rouge's jump with a punch combo to Ultra's stomach, earning another few steps back. Knuckles then turned around as Rouge turned towards him, and the two grabbed each other's arms. Knuckles then spun her around as hard as he could, allowing Rouge a kick straight at Ultra that was strong enough to knock him off his feet and send him a good distance a way.

After realizing what they had done, Knuckles and Rouge, arms still bound, looked towards each other. Although surprised that their attack had succeeded, they were more surprised at how natural it felt for them to fight together...

"HOW DARE YOU STRIKE ME!" Ultra yelled in anger. Levitating himself off of the ground, he quickly straightened himself, and flew at Knuckles and Rouge in a rage. Right before he reached them, however, Shadow suddenly rushed out from behind the two and grabbed Ultra Sonic.

"I hope this hurts." Shadow said right before he glowed a little.

Before Ultra could do anything, he suddenly felt his power being sucked away by Shadow. Ultra was practically bound to his power, and the feeling of it being ripped away from his body brought him pain.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!" He yelled in pain. As Shadow continued to glow, he continuously sucked away as much energy as he could.

Soon, Ultra Sonic regained enough sense to quickly pry himself away from Shadow's grasp. The second the pain ended, rage returned and he grabbed Shadow, spun him around and around as fast as he could, and flung him like a bullet at Rouge.

"Rouge!" Knuckles yelled as the speeding Shadow collided with her and sent the two of them flying off. Turning back towards Ultra, Knuckles was surprised as he saw the hedgehog already next to him.

Grabbing Knuckles by the neck, Ultra quickly flew into the air, choking Knuckles with one hand.

"How **dare** the three of you strike me, and then cause me pain? For this, you shall all die, and for finding me first, you get to die first."

It quickly became apparent to Knuckles that he couldn't breathe, but all he could do was flail as he was suspended over mid air. Ultra Sonic just watched as he choked the life slowly out of his once dear friend. However, to interrupt his fun, Ultra felt a volley of gunfire across his back.

Turning around, he saw Tails and Amy flying close by him. The two had watched the whole battle from afar, and couldn't believe what they were seeing their friend and idol doing.

"Sonic!" Amy called out. "What are you doing? Knuckles is your friend! Let him go!"

"Oh, well lucky you, your little friends have asked me to set you down." Ultra said with mock concern in his voice. "For once, I feel like complying."

Ultra turned to fully face Tails and Amy in the Tornado II. Taking aim, he threw Knuckles directly at the plane. Surprised, Tails tried to dodge the speeding echidna, but wasn't fast enough as Knuckles ended up crashing through one of the wings, and then the echidna and the plane were soon falling towards the ground.

"Now...who should I go after next?" Ultra asked himself as he looked at the heroes on the ground several feet below him. Each of them, even Knuckles, were slowly getting up once more, but none of them looked like they could put up much of a fight, or even stand straight for that very matter.

An ominous shadow flew overhead, however, interrupting Ultra's thoughts. As all looked up and upon the Egg Port, the voice of Eggman came out from it.

"Ultra Sonic! It's time to return to base." Eggman called from up above.

"Who do you think you are to order me around?" Ultra said cockily.

"Well, I believe I was the one who gave you your power and freedom."

"Yes doctor, and I thank you for that. But I'm no genie, and that means I don't have to help you, now do I?"

"Well, you don't realize that I have this." Eggman said as a panel at the bottom of his ship opened, revealing a beam cannon. It was large, and at the very end was a very large case.

"And what is that supposed to do?"

"Watch and learn." Eggman said as he powered up the machine. It soon fired straight at Ultra Sonic, who, cocky, decided to not to dodge. The beam soon him however, and for the second time that day he felt the pain of having his power ripped away from his body.

The cannon fired a special retraction beam that was designed to suck the power of the emeralds away from Ultra Sonic. As his power was being ripped away, Ultra Sonic soon found himself too weak and too much in pain to fly away. He was slowly forced to the ground, where all he could do was lay there and continuously yell out in pain.

The pain, clearing all rational thoughts, soon gave way to anger. Anger of his being harmed, anger of defeat he was facing, and anger of the fact that he could soon be losing all his power forever. The rage was building, but in his current position, he could do nothing, and that only angered him more. Soon, he realized that if the doctor was going to take his power, he was going out with a bang.

Meanwhile, Eggman looked at his machine as he happily watched the Ultima Emerald forming within the case on the beam cannon. He didn't notice as Ultra started building up what energy he had left, and start to form a very bright light around him.

Soon, Ultra had enough power built, and the very last of what he had. And he had no qualms against unleashing it.

"ULTRA...CHAOS...BLAST!" he yelled.

Suddenly, an explosion of white light erupted from his body. The light slowly crept over what was left of the city, and the different heroes on the ground had barely enough time to get themselves behind some form of cover.

From above, Eggman could see the explosion quickly coming in his direction.

"Hurry, move the ship! We must leave for now if we don't want to go down here and now!" Eggman yelled. He gave his order just in time, as the Egg Port was just able to escape the force and sheer energy of the explosion and fly away to safety.

After the explosion died down, and the white light faded away, all that was left of the previously just ruined city was a completely flattened wasteland. And in the center of it all lay Sonic, who was now blue once again.


	11. 11: Tiresome Aftermath

Ultra Sonic 11

Tiresome Aftermath

The first thing Knuckles noticed was that it was raining. It was a very light rain, but rain none-the-less. His eyes, still heavy, wouldn't open, so instead he started to remember what had happened to close them in the first place. Soon flashes of the fight with Ultra Sonic flashed through his head. He then remembered the large explosion that had taken place before everything went black.

The second thing Knuckles noticed was that although it was raining, he wasn't getting wet.

Finally gaining the strength to open his eyes, Knuckles first saw a wooden roof. Looking around, he saw he was in Tails' workshop. Amy was there, looking out the window, while Tails was in a corner, working on his Tornado. It looked like it had gotten beaten up pretty bad from the explosion. It was a wonder to Knuckles how Tails had gotten it to get them all here.

Knuckles also realized that there were bandages here and there on the two of them. Looking down at himself, he could see he had more than the other two combined.

The sound of Knuckles' quills moving as he looked around alerted Amy and she looked towards him. "Knuckles! You're awake!" She exclaimed, rushing over to his side. Tails continued working without even a flinch.

"Amy...what happened after...?" Knuckles slowly asked. He then realized how incredibly weak he felt.

"After the explosion...?" Amy asked. Knuckles slowly nodded. "Well, Tails was the first one of us to wake up. The first thing he did was get the Tornado II into some form of functioning and pile the two of us into it, and then he got it to drive us all the way here. On the way here I woke up."

"What about...Sonic?" Knuckles asked weakly. He noticed that the mentioning of Sonic caused Tails to slightly flinch, but he continued working as if nothing happened.

"Oh...Tails said that when he woke up, Sonic was gone, along with Shadow and Rouge. There was no sight of anything for miles, and nearly everything appeared to have been flattened, except for a rock or slab that had covered each of us."

Knuckles found himself looking towards Tails. He was curious to why he wouldn't speak.

"What's wrong with him...?" Knuckles said in a low whisper only Amy could hear.

Before responding, Amy looked over towards Tails herself. "It's from Sonic. He's blaming himself for what happened, for letting Sonic go in alone. He kept saying the whole way here that he had a bad feeling, but didn't mention anything and ignored it. Now it's too late and he's blaming himself completely."

Knuckles felt a pang of guilt. He knew how much Tails cared for Sonic. They were best friends. Looking over towards Amy once more, he noticed sadness in her eyes too. She cared for Sonic just as much as Tails. To see him fight so viciously against his very friends must have been hard for them to watch.

Knuckles turned again and looked back up at the ceiling in order to think. He had to figure out what had happened, but he already had a fearful hunch. While fighting Ultra Sonic he felt more than just the Chaos Emeralds within him, but also the power of the Master Emerald. Along with that, it was as if the very essence of Chaos, the same beast that they had all fought before during the incident at Station Square, was within Sonic as well.

Continuing to think about what to do brought nothing to Knuckles' mind, and soon his fatigue from the battle came back and slowly pulled him off to sleep once more.

Amy, seeing the echidna before her fall back to sleep, got up and went back to her seat by the window. And once more the scene within Tails' workshop returned to just how it was five minutes ago.

Eggman sat by his computer, contemplating the turn of events. Ultra Sonic was surprisingly devastating, but now he had to figure what to do next.

Around him thunder could be heard as his ship flew through a passing thunderstorm.

His largest obstacle was the fact that when he came back, everyone was gone, including Sonic. Without Sonic, he could not fully harness the power of the Ultima Emerald. He wasn't about to try hooking up any of his machines to it, because he knew that the amount of energy that would be taken could cause even his entire ship to explode.

So now, he had to find Sonic, wherever he had gone, and then figure out where he should attack next.

But whatever he did, finding was his major concern, and therefore, his top priority.

"Metal Sonic, Silica, report here at once." Eggman said into an intercom.

Minutes later the two robots appeared before their creator.

"I want the two of you to try and find Sonic again, and use whatever means necessary to bring him back here. I need him in order for my plan to work. Do you understand?"

"Yes, doctor." Both robots answered at once.

"Ok then, now go." The two robots turned and soon left at once.

Soon Sonic shall be in his grasp once more.

"Well, uh, I learned my lesson from last time, remember? Anyway, you never showed me how to make the Master Emerald smaller before." Rouge asked.

"_That's easy, you just touch it and ask it to become smaller." Knuckles answered._

"_Ask it? You talk as if that thing is a living thing."_

"In a way, it is actually. The Master Emerald has to be I guess, as it controls so much power, and balances the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Well, at least that's what I think..."

Rouge's eyes snapped wide open all of a sudden. Looking around, she soon realized that she was being carried over somebody's shoulder. Her first thought was that somebody was kidnapping her.

"Hey! Idiot that decided to pick me up, let me go now! I demand to be put down!" Rouge yelled in anger.

"As you wish." Came the cool voice of Shadow. The next thing Rouge knew her face was rushing towards the ground before it inevitably collided, and she soon flipped over to see Shadow walking away as if he had just dropped a bag of trash.

"So you're just going to leave me here to die?" Rouge asked angrily at the turned hedgehog.

"You're the one that wanted to be put down. So I figure you can walk, can't you?"

Rouge kept herself from yelling some form of obscenity as she quickly stood up to go after Shadow. As soon as she was standing straight on her two feet, however, she nearly fell right over. She felt incredibly weak and one of her legs was hurt so she couldn't put too much wait on it. Oh, and all over she felt like crap.

Slowly limping over towards Shadow as fast as she could, she noticed two things. First, Shadow, in all his ultimate life form glory, was limping too. Second, over Shadow's other shoulder lay Sonic the Hedgehog.

Rouge's mind then flashed with images from the fight she had mere hours ago. The main thoughts that constantly crossed her mind were that of the power of Ultra Sonic and how easily he was able to take on the three of them, despite the few good hits they got on him.

"What are you doing carrying him? Don't you realize that he could possibly transform and kill us all any minute!" Rouge yelled at Shadow.

"He won't." Shadow said without emotion.

"And how are you so sure about that?" Rouge asked incredulously

"Because whatever beam Eggman fired at him before the explosion was created to take away the chaos power. So now Eggman has that power within his grasp, and as long as we keep Sonic away from him, Eggman won't be able to transform him."

Rouge angrily gave up her argument and caught up to Shadow as quickly as she could. "So where are we going now?"

"A safe house. I remember finding it during our last adventure. We can use it to hide out and read whatever data you have on your disk on whatever Eggman found to be able to do this."

Rouge had nearly forgotten about the disk. Quickly checking her pocket, she could see that the disk was still there, along with another one. The second disk, she remembered, contained data on Shadow.

Looking from the disk to the hedgehog, Rouge realized that Shadow couldn't have forgotten about it. Which meant that he was putting Sonic's current situation over his own.

How these people could put so much trust into that blue hedgehog, Rouge could only wonder. Her own lifestyle had taught her not to trust other people as much as she could help it. There had been two people she found she could fully trust at this point in her life, and one of them was Shadow.

Continuing to walk, they soon found the safe house that they had been looking for and quickly decided to rest, at least for the night. A storm was passing over soon and Rouge could hear the drops begin to fall as she finally doze off...

"_In a way, it is actually. The Master Emerald has to be I guess, as it controls so much power, and balances the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Well, at least that's what I think."_

"_I see..." Rouge said, starting to walk back up the stairs. Knuckles followed her. The two found themselves at the top of the shrine, once again looking at the Master Emerald._

"_The view of up here is great you know. I can never get tired of it." Knuckles said, looking around. _

"_Huh?" Rouge asked. She had been staring at the emerald the whole time._

"_From up here, you can almost see the entire island."_

"_Oh." Rouge said, turning to see what he meant. She found herself speechless as she looked around. The golden sand radiated from the desert, followed by the greens of a magical looking forest with mushrooms for trees. Next to that you could see the snow capped mountains, and then another area of ruins which tiny figures of echidnas could be seen._

_A light wind soon came and rustled Knuckles' spines. Rouge thought about how the whole place seemed perfect and full of magic. It was a wonderful feeling, the kind she got whenever a beautiful jewel fell into her possession. That's when she felt a light touch on her hand, and realized that it was Knuckles'. She slowly grabbed it with her own hand and then couldn't help but lean on his shoulder as the two watched the sight._


	12. 12: Unsafe House

Ultra Sonic 12

Unsafe House

Shadow was the first to wake up. His eyes snapped wide open just before he quickly jumped up to scan his surroundings. Realizing that he was still in the safe house, along with both Rouge and Sonic, he relaxed and slowly stood up.

To his right he could hear Rouge give out a groan. "...Morning already?" She said. The noise of Shadow's speedy awakening roused her enough to be knocked out of dreamland. Slowly she pulled herself up and took a look around. "This isn't such a bad place, Shadow." She commented.

"Rouge, the disk." Shadow simply said in response. "I believe there's a computer in the other room. We need to read the disk's contents quickly."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, in order to help Sonic. Let's just hurry and get this over with."

The two walked over into the next room and quickly powered the PC that they found. Inserting the disk, Rouge quickly went to work opening its files. The first thing to pop out on screen was a picture of the stone tablet that Eggman had found followed by a second window that held translations for certain parts of it.

"Here we are, the main attraction." Rouge said, happy with her usefulness.

"Look at that." Shadow said, pointing at the tablet. It depicted a large white emerald with a tint of blue in it, and directly under it was an echidna that was all white, just like Ultra Sonic. Beneath the echidna were both hedgehogs and echidnas, all looking up towards the white echidna as if preparing for war. There also looked like there was a part cut off below the tablet.

"It says here that the echidna had found the emerald depicted and bonded with it to become a higher being. He called himself Ultra, and it was one of the few times that the constantly warring hedgehogs and echidnas actually stopped fighting each other to fight a greater threat."

"Is there anything mentioning how they stopped him?"

"Well, one of the hedgehogs, whoever may have created the Ultima Emerald, figured out a way to stop him. The hedgehog's name was Darkness and..."

"And what?"

"And then the tablet is cut off. There's more to it, but that's all that's here. Eggman even noted that there was more to the picture but it wasn't found." The two stopped a moment to think to themselves.

"Darkness..." Shadow finally said to break the silence.

"That's what he called you, right?" Rouge asked.

Shadow gave a nod but didn't look towards Rouge. His eyes instead wandered off to the side as he continued to think.

Rouge decided to spend the time looking through the other files on the computer. However, she soon realized that there wasn't much else there. At least nothing that could be of use to them.

"It looks like that picture and those translations were all that got tracked as important. So, while we still have the extra time, do you want to look at the other disk?" Rouge asked.

Shadow didn't respond. Instead he just sat down in a corner and looked out the window.

"Fine then. I'll take that as a yes." Rouge said. She quickly swapped disks out of the PC and went to work on the second one.

"Didn't Eggman mention that the disk was to be used at one of his bases?" Shadow asked.

"Maybe so, but the disk was once in his database. So, I can just use it as a way to search out for his database on the web, and then just transfer the files straight from there to here. And besides, I don't feel like walking."

A few minutes passed by in silence as Rouge continued working. The erratic patters of Rouge's keystrokes were the only things breaking the silence. Soon enough, though, Rouge stopped for a while before motioning to Shadow.

"I'm in. And it looks like the disk doesn't come from his base. It came from G.U.N."

The mention of G.U.N. perked up Shadow's ears and it only took a second for him to cross the room and reach the PC next to Rouge.

"It looks like we're too late, all the files that were here about you were just recently deleted." Rouge said. She looked up to Shadow and could see the dismayed look on his face. "I'm sorry Shadow. It looks like we're going to have to start over again looking for clues."

Instead of responding to Rouge, Shadow took another look at the screen. He noticed that a new folder had been put in place of his own previous folder.

"Project M.A.N.I.C." Shadow said, reading the name of the folder. Reaching over, he clicked to open it and then clicked open one of the files. "It's top secret though. G.U.N. is developing whatever it is in response to me."

"Wait, if they're building that thing because of you, how do they know if you're alive or not?"

"I don't know."

"Well, it looks like there's more data here entailing the project. It even says here that it will be done by the end of the month..."

Suddenly, both of them froze. They heard footsteps approaching from behind them. Turning around slowly, they soon saw Sonic enter the room.

"Shadow...?" Sonic said, puzzled that he was running into the black hedgehog once again.

The three ended up not moving, each staring at each other in what was becoming an awkward moment. The first to move, surprisingly, was Rouge, who stood up and walked over to Sonic before she slapped him.

"First you go all white, then you go psycho on us all and try to kill all your friends, and to top it all off you level an entire city. Then you just get up after it all and walk over saying 'Shadow...?'? You're supposed to be the world's greatest hero! But what kind of _hero _are you!" Rouge yelled in anger.

Everyone froze once again. All were surprised by Rouge's sudden outburst, including Rouge herself. Nobody moved for the next few minutes, as no one really knew what to do next.

However, the decision of what to do next was easily made for them once an explosion occurred from the other side of the house. All three hit the ground as everything around them shook, and as soon as the house stopped moving, they all ran into the next room.

All three were stunned to see the duo of Metal Sonic and Silica facing them in front of a newly blown out wall.

"How'd they find us...?" Rouge muttered under her breath as she got into a fighting stance. Sonic and Shadow followed suit as the trio then faced off against the two robots.

"You can avoid a fight if you give us Sonic." Metal Sonic said in his usual cold voice.

"We're not giving him up without a fight." Shadow said. He then grabbed Rouge and Sonic by their hands and ran out of the room and back into the computer room. Once there Shadow quickly picked up the disk with the data from Eggman's research and handed it to Rouge.

"Rouge, you need to give this disk to Sonic's friends, especially that echidna."

"But, Shadow..."

"I know you want to help, but it's more important to inform them right now."

Sonic caught on to what Shadow was planning and joined in. "Just listen to Shadow. Tails will probably be in his workshop right now, and it's around the Mystic Ruin jungle. Just take the train from Station Square and you should be able to find it. If they're not there, then head to Angel Island."

"Right now we need you to stay low," Shadow said, "We'll distract those two and you can escape afterward."

Before Rouge could respond with another protest the two robots busted through the wall

"Give us Sonic, now." Silica said with her own equally cold voice.

"If you want me, come and get me!" Sonic yelled, running past the two robots and then going straight up what was left of the wall they had gone through. Shadow quickly ran to the opposite side of the room and up that wall and then both hedgehogs simultaneously Spin Dashed through the roof of the safe house, causing enough carnage for the house to soon collapse upon those inside.

Once outside, Sonic and Shadow looked upon their handiwork.

"Not too bad, eh?" Sonic said with a grin.

"Don't speak so soon just yet." Shadow said as the rubble soon started to shake before Metal Sonic and Silica flew up and away.

"So, you want to see who can out run these two first?" Sonic said as the two robots flew up into the air and before turning to search out the two hedgehogs.

"I won't lose." Shadow said as the robots spotted him and Sonic and started flying full speed at them.

"Then let's do this." Sonic said. The two hedgehogs turned and started running an instant before they were attacked by Metal Sonic and Silica. The two robots took only a moment to make sure they didn't hit the ground before speeding after the two hedgehogs in hot pursuit.

A few minutes later the building's rubble once again shook, except this time Rouge came up from under it.

"Those two could warn a bat before they bring down a house, you know. It's only common courtesy." Rouge said, slightly annoyed as she brushed off dirt from her clothes.

Still, the two of them had given her just the diversion she needed, and now it was up to her to go and find the others and get them up to date to what she and Shadow had found out.


	13. 13: Cavernous Canyons

Ultra Sonic 13

Cavernous Canyons

Sonic and Shadow dashed through the desert with two of Eggman's robots still hot on their tail. Metal Sonic and Silica were slowly gaining on the two hedgehogs. They were sent to get Sonic back to Eggman, and they planned to complete their job.

Speeding across the plains and into a desert, Sonic and Shadow continued on with the two robots on their tails. As they kicked up desert sand, ahead of them a canyon appeared and they soon were heading straight for it.

"If we go straight through this canyon, there's a small tunnel on the other side. It's dark enough for us to lose them in." Shadow said, leading the way.

"Ok, I'm with you Shadow." Sonic responded.

However, it wasn't long until robots turned on the afterburners and were soon caught up with the two hedgehogs. Silica, being lighter, caught up first and took a strike at Shadow that was dodged by Shadow moving off to the side. Metal Sonic then caught up to Sonic and tried an attack of his own, but Sonic was able to just speed up enough for the attack to miss.

"You two are going to have to try better than that to catch us!" Sonic yelled off behind him as he and Shadow sped away.

"As much as neither you or I like it, we'll have to combine once more." Metal Sonic soon said.

"If it'll get the job done, then there's no choice." Silica responded in a slightly irritated tone.

The two robots resumed speeding after the two hedgehogs, bumping into each other as they went and combining on the go. As one, their speed increased, and they were soon mere feet away from the hedgehogs.

"What's that?" Sonic asked as he saw the new robot coming.

Shadow turned and was just able to move out of the way before Silver Sonic rocketed past him. "That's Silver Sonic. It seems Eggman created that robot Silica to be able to combine with Metal Sonic and create that thing."

"How tough is he?" Sonic asked as Silver Sonic soon turned around and stopped, waiting for Sonic and Shadow to reach him.

"Well, yesterday, Rouge, Tails, Amy, and myself all faced him at once." Shadow answered.

"And?" Sonic asked, strategies already forming in his head.

"We couldn't beat him." Shadow said, looking away. He was still ashamed to have lost.

"Well, you guys didn't have me before." Sonic said, before he suddenly ran to the right and then along the canyon wall.

Silver Sonic, seeing Sonic coming along the wall, remembered his prime objective was to capture Sonic, and soon was off the ground and speeding after Sonic along the wall himself. A collision course seemed evident, until Sonic jumped off the wall at the last second and barely skimmed past Silver Sonic, claws and all.

Infuriated, Silver Sonic turned around and went right back after Sonic. Sonic, rushing to catch back up to Shadow, saw Silver Sonic out of the corner of his eye and jumped just in time to let the robot pass under him. Silver Sonic was going so fast that he ended up passing Shadow again before he was able to turn completely around. He then turned and like a rocket was aimed right back at Sonic.

"Hey, Shadow, I'm going to need your help for this one." Sonic said before he grabbed Shadow's arm and suddenly started spinning him around.

With Silver Sonic quickly impeding upon them, Sonic spun around as fast as he could before letting go of Shadow and sending him right at the robot. Shadow instinctively culled up and Silver Sonic was just able to point up and fly high enough to allow the hedgehog to pass under him. Before he could go back to skimming the ground, however, Sonic spin dashed after Shadow, and got past him again.

Although slightly annoyed by Sonic for using him as a distraction, Shadow soon forgot about that when he could see the cavern up ahead, and let Sonic know.

"What's on the other side?" Sonic asked.

"Something you need to see." Shadow answered before he noticed Silver Sonic catching up to them again.

"Quick, we'll lose him in the cavern!" Sonic yelled, and the two of them quickly sped straight into the cavern.

Silver Sonic, completely angry at Sonic at this point, quickly retracted his claws and in their place appeared two rocket launchers. Arms raised, he fired off 3 rounds of rockets that sped into the cave, but instead of reaching the hedgehogs, hit the ceiling and walls.

Soon explosions rocked throughout the cave, rocks and boulders started to fall, and to the dismay of Silver Sonic, the entrance caved in. He had let the two of them get away.

Inside the cave, Sonic and Shadow were still racing for their lives, dodging stalactites and rocks that fell all around them. Soon, they made it to the other side in one piece, although a second after they left the cavern, the exit caved in as well. The two hedgehogs soon slowed to a stop and rested in the now grassy area.

"Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sonic joked.

"Speak for yourself." Shadow said. He had gotten slightly dizzy from the stunt Sonic pulled with him, and didn't realize it until he nearly got hit by a rock after dodging right instead of left in the cavern.

"Well, anyway," Sonic said, jumping up, "What about that thing you wanted to show me?"

"Come this way." Shadow said as he led the way up a hilltop. "I wanted to show you the view." Shadow moved away giving Sonic all the room he needed.

At the sight of it all, Sonic stood both horrified and speechless.


	14. 14: Morning After

Ultra Sonic 14

Morning After

As he hovered in the air, he could see Sonic running towards him. Suddenly, a couple robots jumped up and before he could warn the hedgehog, they were already scrap metal from the blue spines.

_With the essence of cool, Sonic hurried over to Tails. Tails was just in awe watching his hero run like that, the fastest living thing on earth. But, as the hedgehog was only mere feet away from, a glow started appearing. Ignoring it, Tails waved his hand to Sonic._

"_Hey Sonic!" Tails yelled happily. His best friend was here to help him, like always._

"_Hey Tails, I've got a slight problem..." Sonic said, reaching the two tailed fox._

"_What is it Sonic...?" Tails managed to say before he had to look away. The light had gotten really bright all of a sudden, and it appeared to be coming from Sonic. When it had finally died down Tails turned to look again._

_He saw Sonic, but he was all white. He was now Ultra Sonic, his pupils seemingly missing from his face, leaving just the white of his eyes, and a maniac grin with rows of teeth filled his mouth. The same exact image he had seen from Tiefa City imprinted in his mind, and now into his dreams._

_Ultra Sonic grabbed Tails by the neck, lifted him up a little, and then whispered into his ear, "I'm tired of helping you anymore, little buddy."_

_Holding Tails at arms length, Ultra Sonic lifted his other hand, and soon began to charge a beam attack, inches away from Tails' face..._

"_Wakey Wakey, eggs and bakey!_" Amy sang as she nudged Tails' shoulder.

"Aaah!" Tails suddenly yelled as he was finally roused from his sleep. Amy looked closely at him and noticed that he was breathing hard and had a cold sweat.

"Tails, did you have a nightmare?" She asked quietly, so only Tails can hear. Tails didn't want to answer, but he did give a small nod. "I did too..." Amy quickly said to him before she got up and walked towards a door. "Knuckles and I are having breakfast in the next room. Come in when you're ready." And with that, she left.

Tails looked around. He was still in his workshop, he could see the seat by the window that Amy had took to sitting in after she awoke yesterday, and he could see the spare bed that Knuckles had slept in. The sheets were neatly folded already, probably from Amy.

Turning behind him, he could see the Tornado II. It had gotten pretty damaged from the day before, so he had to reconfigure a few things and even take a thing or two out. Currently, it looked like he hadn't finished it before he fell asleep sometime during the night. There was only one thing left to do really, and he picked up his wrench to try and finish it quickly.

"...And there you have it folks, the one and only hero Sonic, now an evil monster!" said a voice from the television as Tails walked into the room. "Some say it may have been a double, like the incident with the cannon from space colony ARK, but eye witnesses swear that it is Sonic, the world's fastest living thing, who not only found what appears to be a new super form, but also is using it to cause chaos and destroy cities!"

Amy looked up from the table to see Tails had walked into the room, and became alarmed at how much he might have heard from the TV. "Knuckles, I think the TV should be off, I think we've heard enough."

"And I think we haven't heard enough until we get a clue to where ever Sonic might be." Knuckles was sitting in a corner, looking away from both Amy and Tails, and the TV. He sat there, appearing to meditate.

"Um, here Tails, I kept your breakfast warm." Amy said, getting up from her seat and offering it to Tails. Tails simply plopped down and started to slowly eat. The food was slightly cold.

As Tails ate, Knuckles stayed motionless in the corner, and the TV ended up making all the noise for the room. Amy stood away from it all, watching their obvious depression. She found herself barely holding back tears.

Soon the noise of nothing other than the TV finally got to here. "So, what are we going to do today?" She inquired.

"Find Sonic." Both Tails and Knuckles said at once. She wasn't sure if they noticed they had spoken at the same time, but they didn't make any indication of it. She started to say something more, but then a certain phrase from the TV caught her attention.

"That's right folks, the president has just hired G.U.N. to make a full investigation on the matter. They already said that they would start by interrogating Sonic's known best friend, Tails, who is currently residing somewhere in the Mystic Ruins."

"Wait, G.U.N. is coming?" Amy said quietly.

However, that was all it took to make the other two look up. The three looked at each other for a moment until they could hear something from outside.

"This is G.U.N.! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"

Alarmed, the three quickly jumped to their feet. Surprisingly, Tails was the first to speak.

"Knuckles, quickly run outside and try to distract them. Amy and I will get into the Tornado II and come out to help you soon." Tails said, grabbing Amy by the arm and turning to run out of the room before he had even finish his sentence.

Knuckles didn't have any complaints, as he was about to say the same exact thing.

"This is your final warning! Come out with your hands up!" yelled the G.U.N. officer once more. He waited for another few seconds before he finally gave the order for one of the robots to open fire. But before it could even pull the trigger, a red flash erupted from the house and in the next second the robot was destroyed.

The red flash continued running through the robotic flanks blowing up everything it went past until it finally stopped in front of the officer.

"Knuckles the Echidna, ah, we were warned you might be involved. So, we brought back up." The officer calmly said.

Suddenly an assortment of other G.U.N. robots jumped out of the nearby trees and quickly headed in Knuckles' direction. Turning to face them, Knuckles just barely saw a shot fire at him before he was able to dodge in time. As he rolled across the ground, another shot fired at him, and he realized he wouldn't be able to move in time.

Luckily for him, Tails had finally gotten the Tornado II to get moving. In mech form, it fired and deflected the shot fired at Knuckles, and sent a couple volleys of its own at the impeding robots. Knuckles also rose and threw himself at them.

It didn't take very long for that wave of robots to appear, but no sooner had they arrived that another wave appeared, and another, and another. Soon, the heroes moved into the forest, jumping past trees and firing upon multiple robots from behind. They kept this momentum up, until jet planes could be heard from above.

"Tails!" Amy yelled from the back seat as she pointed up at the sky. Tails knew that if they sent jets here, they could either drop tons upon tons of G.U.N. robots until they were overwhelmed, or even just bomb the forest until they got them.

Quickly turning, he signaled to Knuckles to jump on, and as Amy worked the controls and fired missiles in Cream's place, Tails quickly initiated the transformation sequence, and very soon they were off the ground, with Knuckles riding atop a wing.

Tails jetted into the sky, firing past the jets as Amy fired upon them, and soon cleared the sky with Knuckles hanging on for dear life. With the skies finally clear, they started to fly away from the area, taking their chance to escape from G.U.N.

As they flew, Knuckles noticed something on the ground below. Without even thinking, he signaled for Tails to head down in the direction he pointed. The plane very soon reached close to the ground, and Knuckles reached out from the wing to grab...Rouge.

"What are you doing here!" Knuckles demanded more than asked.

"I came here to find you, and to tell you all that Sonic's safe, but maybe not for long." Rouge quickly said.

"So, you know where Sonic is right now?" Tails asked.

"Not exactly, Metal Sonic and Silica found where we were hiding and we spilt up, me coming after you guys, and Shadow leaving with Sonic in the direction I of what I think is Tiefa City."

"_Was_ Tiefa City..." Amy said quietly. All four of them didn't say anything for a moment as they remembered what had happened.

"Anyway, Knuckles, like I said, I came to look for you."

"And now you've found us." Knuckles answered, turning away. He was concentrating more now on getting to Tiefa City, and he could already feel Tails increasing his speed.

"I mean _you_, you smelly redhead! Pay attention." Rouge said, annoyed by how quickly he lost interest in what she had to say. "Look, while Shadow and I were on the ship, we found some files from Eggman's computer, and what it might mean is that there's a way to help Sonic, but I need your help."

Knuckles turned to look at her once more. For some reason, he felt more as if she just _wanted_ him to come along, rather than _needed_ him. He couldn't help but hoping it was the former.

"Ok, where to?" Tails answered for Knuckles. "I'll drop you off there on the way."

"Back at that pyramid base that Eggman found the tablet in."

"Ok, we should be there within the hour."

Tails suddenly veered off of the direction he was going, surprising everyone else and causing Knuckles and Rouge to nearly fall off. But he didn't really think about that right then. At that moment, the most important thing wasn't even finding Sonic, it was trying to find a way to restore his best friend to how he was, as his hero.

This time, instead of Sonic helping him, he would help Sonic.

It didn't take long for the Tornado II to break the sound barrier.


	15. 15: Another Chance

Ultra Sonic 15

Another Chance

Sonic couldn't stop staring open-mouthed. He soon fell to his knees and tears began to form in his eyes.

"Shadow, say it isn't so..."

Shadow didn't say a word. He knew Sonic would have to face up to it eventually. He had to realize what he had done. He must come to terms with his destroying Tiefa City.

"I took this exact path to escape." Shadow slowly started. "I saw this too, and it was hard to believe, the world's greatest hero can do so much destruction when he's given enough power."

"But...it wasn't me! I mean, it was me, and yet, it wasn't..."

"What do you mean it wasn't you?"

"Well, yes, I was in a blinding rage, but at the same time, I felt like it was someone else's rage. Someone else's craving for power. Someone else's consciousness in control of my body."

Shadow silently took note of what was said. It seemed to tie in with what Ultra Sonic had said before, calling him Darkness. As if it was another person mistaking him for someone else.

"It's the Ultima Emerald..." Sonic solemnly said.

"The what?" Shadow inquired. He had not heard of that before.

"The Ultima Emerald. Eggman used info from the tablet to combine the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, creating the Ultima Emerald, or what might have been the original emerald. I remember him saying that the Ultima Emerald was first created to seal off someone's power, and it was then split so that the power wouldn't become too overwhelming in any one emerald."

"And Eggman has the Ultima Emerald?"

"He's probably got it pointed at the door for when the tin heads capture me."

"Sonic, are you sure it wasn't you that caused all that destruction, and not just the Ultima Emerald's power?"

"Why do you ask?"

"So that I know whether or not I should keep you on the list of people I can really trust."

Sonic took a few minutes to think. The wind passed by and slightly ruffled the fur of the two hedgehogs.

"I think so..."

"I _think_ so? You need to _know_ so." Shadow firmly stated.

"I can't be sure, ok! Remember when you and me were fighting the Biolizard in our Super forms? Remember how invincible you felt? Imagine that euphoria times ten. And even then there was more."

It was a long time before either of them said a word.

"So, it was all Eggman," Shadow said, breaking the silence, "He decided to get you where it hurt. He gave you near infinite power and showed you that even the greatest of heroes could become villains. And you know what I think?"

"That deep down, the reason Eggman and I fight is because we're exactly the same?"

"I think that I should forgive you, as after all I've done, you forgave me."

>>>>>>>>>>>

Inside of Eggman's EggPort, Metal Sonic and Silica were slowly walking through the corridors in order to give Eggman their report. They're only fear was of the report's effect on Eggman.

Entering the control room, Metal Sonic was the first to speak. "Sir, we must report..."

"Save it, I already know you two failed as you would have brought him with you into the room. I want you two to go out there and try to find him once more. And I know the perfect place to look."

"How can you be so sure?" Silica asked.

"Because the amateur criminal always returns to the scene of the crime, and after hearing the news, it's only a matter of time until Sonic gets chased down once more. But, this is also why you two must hurry before G.U.N. reaches him."

"Yes, sir." Silica answered.

"However, one more thing," Metal Sonic started, "The bat got away while the black hedgehog stayed with Sonic. From what we understand, they might have been going over some of your files, however they got them, and were planning to warn the others."

"Hmm... I'll keep that in mind. Now, Metal Sonic, Silica, go find that blue hedgehog!"

The two robots were soon gone in a flash. Seeing that task complete, Eggman turned and reached for a microphone.

"Coconuts, I want you to go back to the pyramid base and take care of anybody that might be trying to find something there. Don't be afraid to go to max power output if necessary."

With that now done, Eggman got up and left the control room to walk into another room. Inside of it was a prototype beam weapon. Many robots were already there, working diligently and efficiently all over the machine. Eggman looked over at a few computer screens to check progress, and soon beamed a wide smile.

"Maybe I will get to use this insurance plan after all..."

>>>>>>>>>>

"Rouge, are you sure it's here?" Knuckles asked.

"Are you sure this is where Tails said the tablet was?" Rouge asked back.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well then I am too."

The two had been digging for a while now through the remains of the pyramid that Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream had visited only days before. However, they were making progress, and they already found some sort of statue that they were trying to dig up. Upon finding that they couldn't budge it, they decided to dig out the area around it to get a closer inspection.

"There, finally, the stupid thing is free." Rouge said, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead.

Knuckles didn't say a word. He only stared at the statue.

"Hey, knucklehead, what's up?"

"Didn't Tails say that this was the ruins of an ancient echidna civilization?"

"Yep, full of smelly echidnas just like you."

"Then why is this statue of a hedgehog?"

Rouge moved next to Knuckles and looked at the statue. Sure enough, the statue was of a hedgehog. It was female, and had quills so long they gave the impression of a waterfall of hair reaching to her waist. That hedgehog was wonderfully beautiful, drawing you in with her breath-taking beauty.

"So, what do you think it means?" Rouge asked quietly.

When Knuckles didn't answer, she pried her eyes away from the statue to see that he had his eyes closed. He stood very still, as if thinking about something. Just before Rouge could bonk him on the head, though, he stepped forward and hit a random part of the statue's base.

A click could be heard and slowly, begrudgingly, the statue slid off of a passageway that lead deeper down into more ruins. Like magic, lights suddenly flickered on to reveal stairs, and the light continued to flicker on, one by one, in a chain that went farther and farther down, long past where it could be seen from up top.

The two stood there motionless. After a few minutes, Rouge finally broke the silence. "So?"

"Well...ladies first."

"You're only saying that so that I can go first and possibly get myself killed!"

"I would think the self proclaimed, 'world's best treasure hunter', would be a little bit more fearless than that."

"I am the world's greatest treasure hunter! And I'll prove it by finding whatever is down there that might just help Sonic!" Rouge yelled at Knuckles before she pushed him out of the way and stomped down the stairs ahead.

Knuckles suppressed a small laugh before following behind her.

The two were soon well on their way down the stairs, surrounded by cave walls with torches on either side, they continued for what felt like an hour. It didn't take long for the entrance to seemingly disappear from view, and as the two continued, they found torches appearing at longer and longer intervals, darkening the passageway as they moved on.

When Rouge's boot finally hit straight ground, she held back a cheer of joy and motioned to Knuckles. Taking a few steps forward, she found herself stepping further and further out of the light of the last torch they passed. She realized that there didn't even appear to be another torch in the distance; She was now walking straight into pitch black.

Click.

Before Rouge could respond to the fact she had stepped on a switch, she was suddenly bathed in light. Torches lit up everywhere, revealing a giant temple room, with statues and wall paintings of echidnas and hedgehogs everywhere, covering the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling.


	16. 16: Possesive Emeralds

Ultra Sonic 16

Possessive Emeralds

"I didn't think I'd see another shrine after Mystic Ruins..." Knuckles said softly from behind Rouge as the two looked over their surroundings.

"You...you mean you've seen a temple like this before?" Rouge said in disbelief

"Yep. There's even one on Angel Island, the Angel Sanctuary. Although this place is a lot smaller; it appears to be just one room." Knuckles commented, before stepping forward. "Come on, let's go and get what we came here for."

Quickly dashing across the room and up the steps ahead of them, the two treasure hunters reached a table with two emeralds on top, both appearing to be colored totally black.

"Two emeralds?" Rouge asked to herself as Knuckles stepped forward.

"There's some ancient text here that I recognize. It says 'the two here were imprisoned for creating a great power.'"

"Could that mean the power source to Ultra Sonic?"

"Possibly. The one in front of me is called Night, and the one near you seems to have been named Shade.

"Wait, I remember Ultra Sonic mentioning something about a 'Night' when he first saw Shadow."

"Right, so this is probably the emerald we need right here. So, shall we be leaving then?"

"Wait, if we only need one of these emeralds, I can keep the other, right?"

"Well..." Before Knuckles could finish, Rouge had already grabbed the emerald on the right.

"Shade Emerald, you are now mine!" Rouge declared as she held the emerald up into the light.

Knuckles gave a sigh before picking up the Night Emerald. "Just don't stare too long. We still have to hurry back."

"Knuckles, don't you understand that you can never stare too long at true beauty?"

Knuckles shook his head and turned around, quickly heading down the steps. Reaching the bottom, he started towards the stairway when he realized that he hadn't heard Rouge take a single step yet. Turning around once more, he looked up towards Rouge, whose face was being blocked from view by the emerald.

"Rouge, hurry up!" Knuckles called back. As the words left him, he thought he noticed Rouge's fur suddenly become a few shades darker. The emerald in her hands pulsed with a dark energy that seemed to be moving for itself to the bat holding it. "Rouge..."

"Shush you blabbering echidna. I move on my own time." The dark energy soon stopped, and turning around Rouge placed it back upon its pedestal. Knuckles could see a streak of black fur, much like the streak of red on Shadow, that covered part of her head and went up to completely darken her ears.

After carefully placing the emerald down, Rouge turned back around and Knuckles gasped in shock. Just like Ultra Sonic, Rouge's pupils had completely disappeared. All that was left were the whites of the eyes, staring blankly upon him.

It didn't take long for him to put two and two together.

"Who are you and what have you done with Rouge?" Knuckles yelled

"My name is Shade, and after all the time I spent stuck within that emerald, I think it's about time I took a stretch."

"Leave Rouge alone!"

"Don't order me echidna." Shade said with a venomous tone. "The only echidna that I bow down to is Ultra."

"Well, let me show you that times have changed!" Knuckles yelled, pocketing the Night Emerald and rushing up the stairs. He threw a punch, but hit only air, as Shade effortlessly jumped over him and flipped before landing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Wow, this body is even more elegant than my old one." Shade said, looking herself over. "I even have wings!"

"What are you and what have you done to Rouge!" Knuckles yelled.

"I told you already," Shade said, changing her tone from glee to malice, "the only echidna I answer to is Ultra. Now, unless you can point me in his direction..."

"I...I believe I can."

Shade turned around in an instant and glared at Knuckles with a look of disaster. "Show me him, **now.**"

"Only if you answer my question."

"Spit it out."

"Who or what are you and what have you done to Rouge?"

"Now isn't that two questions?"

"Just answer."

"Fine. As I said, my name is Shade. At this point, I'm no more than a spirit that has lived this long by being trapped within one of the emeralds you found. My sister and I came across this pyramid village of hedgehogs and echidnas that did not want to fight in the great war."

"Great war?"

"Yes, the great Hedgehog-Echidna war. The fight for the power of the many chaos emeralds. My sister and myself had stopped in this village and through an unfortunate series of events, I became trapped within an emerald."

"I see..."

"Now that I've answered your question, show me the way to Ultra."

"Fine, return into the emerald."

"Return into the emerald?"

"Yeah, once you go back into the emerald, Rouge and I will bring you to Ultra."

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to see Ultra as is."

"That wasn't part of our deal!"

"Our deal was that you'd show me him. There was no part of it included that said I'd have to return to the emerald."

"Why you..."

"Hmm...How about you and me fight for it? If you can beat me I'll let your pretty girl friend go."

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"That blush tells different."

Out of anger, Knuckles finally exploded and rushed back down the stairs, straight at Shade. Pulling back a fist, he jumped the last couple of steps and flew towards Shade.

"Knuckles, wait, it's me, Rouge!" Shade suddenly yelled.

"Huh?" Knuckles suddenly and quickly twirled to the side, pushing himself far enough so that he missed Shade completely and rolled to a stop on the ground. "Rouge, is that really you?"

"Foolish echidna. You're way too gullible." Shade quickly turned and was upon Knuckles in an instant, applying a flurry of kicks and then sending him flying with a final roundhouse. "What luck, it seems this specimen too is a fighter that uses her feet."

"Come here!" Knuckles yelled, running up from behind. Just before he reached, however, Shade turned around with tears in her eyes, and Knuckles quickly stopped in his tracks.

"Too easy." Shade said, her tearful expression turning into a smirk. With a back flip, she kicked Knuckles into the air, and as he fell back towards the ground, another roundhouse sent across the shrine room once more.

Walking over to take a look, Shade reached Knuckles and looked to see he wasn't moving. She gave a few jabs of her boot into his ribcage, but nothing happened.

"Wow, knocked out already? Either you're extremely weak, or I just don't know my own strength." Shade started to turn around, until she noticed a flash of light coming from next to Knuckles. Looking back, she noticed the Night Emerald that Knuckles had picked up had fallen out of his pocket. "Hmm...?"

Bending over for a closer look, Shade watched mystified as the black emerald pulsed before filling the room with it's strange light.

"Ugh...my aching head..." Knuckles said as he slowly woke up. Turning over, he looked up at the imprint he made in the wall before fully standing up. "Now...where am I again?"

Looking around, Knuckles' eyes soon found the body of Rouge. Everything quickly flooded back into his memory as he ran over to her and propped her head up into his arms.

"Rouge, Rouge, are you ok?"

"Uh...Knuckles...?"

Knuckles quickly looked Rouge over to see it was really her. The black fur that appeared on her head was now gone, meaning that Shade's spirit no longer resided in her.

"What happened?" Rouge asked.

"Um...I think the emeralds caused some kind of explosion when we moved them." Knuckles said quickly.

"Really...?" Rouge asked. Knuckles gave her a nod. Slowly, she turned her head towards her side, and as Knuckles followed her gaze, he saw that the Night Emerald was lying right there in her hand.

"We need to get out of here." Knuckles said urgently.

"Give me a minute then..."

"We need to get out of here, _now_." Knuckles said impatiently.

"Geez, alright already, I'm getting up!" Rouge said with a huff, hastily getting to her feet. "Can't a girl enjoy a moment of serenity?"

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked, bewildered by her last sentence.

"Just forget it. Let's get out of here." Rouge said as she walked towards the exit, grumbling something about being surrounded by things she liked.

Knuckles watched her for a few steps before he got up himself. Looking around quickly, he realized that the Shade Emerald was missing.

"I guess good riddance anyway..." Knuckles said as he turned towards the door to catch up to Rouge. To his horror though, he found her held by the neck, in the grasp of Coconuts.

"Rouge!" Knuckles yelled as he charged straight for the robot. Turning to face him, Coconuts flung Rouge off to the side and got into a battle position himself.

Knuckles jumped and lunged through the air in a speedy glide, with his fist pointing straight for Coconuts. Bending over as if he was doing the limbo, Coconuts dodged the attack and flipped under Knuckles in order use his feet to spring the echidna into the ceiling.

Recovering in the air, Knuckles flipped himself upside down and landed feet first onto the ceiling, immediately planting his knuckles into the stone to keep him locked in place.

"Nobody flings Rouge the Bat around like a rag doll!" Rouge yelled, surprising both Coconuts and Knuckles as charged at Coconuts. Jumping, she led in with a diving kick that Coconuts sidestepped, but upon landing Rouge pivoted upon her heel and used her other foot for a roundhouse kick. Coconuts was forced to block, and Knuckles saw his chance.

Pulling his knuckles out of the rock, Knuckles pushed off as hard as he could with his feet and dived straight at Coconuts, who barely looked up in time before Knuckles' fist hit him straight in the face smashed him into the ground. So much force was applied that an imprint was immediately made.

"Do you think that did him in?" Knuckles asked.

"I'd bet my wings on it. Now let's get out of here." Rouge said.

The two turned and made a few steps before they heard the sound of metal scraping against stone. Turning, they saw Coconuts pulling himself out of the ground, an imprint still in his face from Knuckles' last attack.

"Reaching 100," A computerized voice said, coming from the red robot.

"Rouge, get ready, he's going to become unbelievably fast." Knuckles said, getting into a battle position as the robot fully righted itself upon its feet.

"I'm ready." Rouge said, following Knuckles' lead and getting into a battle position of her own.

A moment passed before Coconuts took a step and suddenly he appeared in front of Knuckles. Before the echidna could make a sound, Coconuts made a high kick that launched the echidna into the air, and then turned to attack Rouge. Rouge barely dodged a quick punch, then jumped into the air and spun around for a kick that was easily blocked. Coconuts then grabbed her boot and spun her once before smashing her into the floor. Raising his fist, he planned to do to her what Knuckles did to him.

However, he was interrupted by Knuckles who sped across the shrine and tackled him head on. Knocking both of them a couple feet away, Knuckles flipped up and charged again, this time with a punch combo. He was easily blocked, but before Coconuts could counter attack, Rouge came from behind and the robot jumped as the bat kicked the air where his head used to be.

Reaching the height of his jump, Coconuts watched as Rouge gave a large flap of her wings and suddenly was at the same height as him. Quickly punching forward, he missed as Rouge used her ability to fly against him and flew over his head to kick him from behind.

Coconuts was sent towards the ground, with Knuckles waiting for him. Knuckles made an uppercut before Coconuts could touch the ground, but somehow the robot was able to twist himself in the air and just miss the attack, landing and quickly swiping his tail to trip up Knuckles. Next, he back flipped over Knuckles as Rouge came down towards the ground, spiking the spot where Coconuts had just jumped been. Landing, Coconuts quickly spun and did a roundhouse kick of his own at Rouge, which was blocked but sent the bat skidding away for a few feet.

Looking down at the ground, Coconuts planned to finish off Knuckles, but instead found a large hole where the echidna used to be. Looking back up, he quickly put his arms up as Rouge struck from the air with a multi-kick combo. Floating just above him, she continued to kick, kick, and kick until suddenly a hole appeared in the ground and the robot fell in.

"Hmm, well that's sure surprising." Rouge said as she landed by the hole.

"Thank you." Knuckles said as he climbed back out of the first hole that he made when Coconuts had tripped him. "Now let's get out of here before he gets out of the hole. I didn't have time to make it very deep."

"Sure, we can seal the robot inside the shrine."

And the echidna and bat were soon away.


	17. 17: Quick Reunion

Ultra Sonic 17

Quick Reunion

"Pretty nice hiding spot down here, don't you think?" Sonic said as he laid back against a wall. "They'd never find us under all of this rubble."

"Shhh." Shadow shushed Sonic as he listened by the entrance.

"I guess we're lucky that we got down here before they spotted us." Sonic continued, "But you'd think they'd just be here to investigate. Why would G.U.N. send such a large force here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

The two hedgehogs sat for a moment, both lost in thought. Nothing came to mind however as they sat there, and both were about to make a comment on something when a crashing sound was heard above.

"What do you think that was?" Sonic quickly asked.

"Let's go have a look." Shadow answered.

The two quickly looked out the entrance and saw a flash of something blue followed by the sound of a missile and a couple of exploding robots.

"It couldn't be..." Sonic said as he jumped out of the opening to the small covered area. Shadow quickly tried to grab him and pull him back under, but Sonic moved too quickly.

Out in the open, Sonic looked around and saw what was making all the commotion. A blue plane was jetting around and firing missiles at all of the robots that were around.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic yelled into the air as he waved his arms high. The plane quickly spun around after a moment and flew right over his head. A moment after, Sonic realized something had been dropped from the plane.

"Sooooooniiiiiiiiic!" yelled the voice of Amy as she landed atop of Sonic after jumping from the plane. "Sonic, I'm so glad to see you're ok! Where have you been? Are you hurt? Is everything all right? Why did you turn white before? Why aren't you white now? What was that attack you did before? Why did you attack everyone else? And why-"

"Amy, slow down! Give me a chance to answer at least!" Sonic said as he tried to get up off the ground from under Amy.

"I've just been so worried about you Sonic."

"At least let me help Tails then." Sonic said, succeeding in getting up and immediately dashing off.

He quickly charged at a couple of robots and within seconds turned them into scrap as Tails flew in from behind him and fired a number of rounds at another group that was about to fire at Sonic. Quickly moving, Sonic swerved around shots fired from another group and ran up a make shift ramp. Tails quickly passed by once more, blowing up the group Sonic just dodged, and gaining another rider as Sonic jumped on.

The plane quickly flew up and around, coming into a dive and firing at all of the robots below. Pulling up, it skimmed across the ground as Sonic jumped off and used the speed boost from the plane's dive to speed right through another set of robots.

Eventually, the area became clear, and Tails switched into walker mode and landed by Sonic as he returned to where both Shadow and Amy were waiting.

"Well, how did you like that show?" Sonic asked gleefully with his arms behind his head.

"That was amazing Sonic!" Amy cried out as she ran over and gave him a hug.

"Don't get cocky, there will be more soon, we should hide." Shadow said as he turned and reentered the hiding place he had found.

Tails, who Sonic realized hadn't spoken up to this point, put his walker into some kind of roller mode and drove it in after Shadow.

"What's up with Tails?" Sonic asked Amy.

"It's about yesterday..." Amy said before letting go of Sonic and running inside also.

Left alone, Sonic looked up into the sky for a moment, looking for something, before going inside as well.

Coming in, he saw Tails in the corner working on his machine from the cockpit, Amy looking around the accidental cave, and Shadow sitting by the entrance acting as lookout.

"Hey, Tails...what's up?" Sonic asked.

Upon hearing his name, Tails froze, but didn't look up at the blue hedgehog. "Sonic...what happened yesterday to you?" Tails asked slowly.

"Eggman...did some kind of experiment on me with a powerful emerald. I swear I wasn't myself yesterday."

"Really?" Tails asked.

"Really. I wouldn't lie to you little buddy."

"He's telling the truth." Shadow said from his position as lookout.

"Well, in that case," Tails quickly turned and threw a wrench at Sonic, which was barely caught. "I need you to fix part of the wing." Tails said with a smile.

"You got it." Sonic said as he sped over to the side of the machine and started working. Tails also doubled over once more and the two began to work in tandem once more, like they did outside. Amy couldn't help but smile, and hidden from everybody was a small smirk from Shadow.

Soon Sonic and Tails were finished and the two of them along with Amy started chatting and telling jokes to pass the time as Shadow stayed by the entrance. At least an hour had passed before Amy and Tails both fell asleep and once more it was Sonic and Shadow in silence.

"Hey, think you need a break from lookout?" Sonic asked, getting up from the tangle of Amy and Tails' sleeping bodies and walking over to Shadow.

"I'm fine." Shadow said firmly.

"Are you sure? You've done a lot in the past day."

"You don't need to worry about me."

"Fine." Sonic plopped down next to Shadow and looked out the door. The sun was beginning to set and Sonic was surprised that so much time had passed.

"Sonic..."

"Yeah?"

"How did you do that attack...'Ultra Chaos Blast' you called it?"

"What attack?"

"The move you used to decimate this entire city, what else?"

Sonic's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he looked back at the sunset.

"To tell you the truth, my memory stops at around the point in which you tried to sap away my powers. I wasn't in much control then, and when you did that, my mind sorta went blank. I'd always figured that I just raged out and kept attacking everything until there was only rubble, and that I tired out my powers through that."

"I see..."

Suddenly, Sonic's quills stiffened. Shadow's too.

"They're coming..." Shadow said quietly.

Suddenly a hole was blasted through the ceiling in a big explosion. Smoke quickly filled the room. When it finally cleared, Sonic and Shadow were face to face to Metal Sonic and Silica.

"Correction, they're here."


	18. 18: Fleeing Flight

Ultra Sonic 18

Fleeing Flight

"Sonic, Eggman is waiting." Metal Sonic said, his arms crossed.

"Don't you want to be strong again?" Silica asked with a seductive tone of voice.

"As much as I'd like to go back with you two," Sonic started, "how about you catch me first?"

Sonic turned and ran, and immediately Metal Sonic and Silica flew up and out of the hole they made after him. Rushing past strewn rubble, Sonic quickly found a section of the town with a couple walls still standing and dashed behind one. Metal Sonic and Silica followed closely behind, but when they turned to look behind the wall, Sonic had seemingly vanished.

Spinning around, they looked about them at the other walls forming a maze around them.

"Over there, I just saw a flash of spines." Silica said, quickly flying off in the direction she pointed in with Metal Sonic in tow.

Crossing another corner, and moving past another wall, they found no one to be there, but then Metal saw another flash and hurried after it, again finding nothing.

"We need to split up." Metal Sonic said, and the two robots turned and moved away in two opposite directions.

Back at the hiding place, Amy was waking up. Looking around, she saw Sonic and Tails working on the Tornado 2 with a hole in the roof right above them.

"Sonic, what's going on?" Amy said groggily as she stood up.

"Metal Sonic's found us. Shadow's keeping him and Silica busy right now, but we don't have much time."

"Silica! Why didn't you wake me? I owe her a..."

"Sonic, I'm done here." Tails said, cutting Amy off, "We're lifting off right now so go and get Shadow. Amy, get in the back."

"Amy, you'll get to pay back Silica, just wait."

With a thumbs up, Sonic ran off again while Amy jumped into the back seat behind Tails.

Back at the maze of rubble, Shadow quickly dashed behind another wall as Silica flew past him, and then flipped over the top and onto the other side as Silica looked behind her to see if she passed anything.

Turning, he moved to run again when he came face to face with Metal Sonic.

"Sonic isn't here, is he?" Metal said with a cold voice.

Shadow didn't say a word, just glared at the robot and clenched his fist.

"You're still angry about the Overlord incident? How I wiped your memory again and copied your form? I almost got to use all those Shadow-bots too. What a shame, they probably would have stood a better chance in defeating me than you ever could."

"Sorry, but I bet Shadow could beat you any day!"

Turning to see where the source of the voice came from, Metal Sonic was hit with a face full of spines as Sonic tackled him and hit him hard enough to slam Metal through the wall.

"Are the preparations complete?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Sonic answered.

"Where do you two think you're going?" came the voice of Silica, from above. "I finally realized how much easier it would be just to fly up and look for you like a hawk, and it paid off."

Silica dived straight down in an attack attempt, but Shadow and Sonic were able to jump away in time. However, upon reaching the ground, Silica quickly flipped over and roared her engine enough to cause a quick cloud of smoke to surround everyone.

"Shadow!" Sonic yelled, "Where are you?"

Turning, Sonic saw a shadow through the smoke coming straight for him. Quickly waving his arms, he tried to catch the attention of the shadow. But, out of the smoke, instead of Shadow there was Metal Sonic, and Sonic was quickly grabbed within Metal's claws.

Finally, the smoke cleared, and Shadow saw that Sonic had been grabbed during the smoke screen.

"Silica," Metal Sonic started, "The two of us will be leaving now; we got what we came for..."

A whistling sound was heard through the air, and looking above them, the three watched as a missile flew down from above straight towards them.

"You should watch your back more!" Shadow yelled, taking the opportunity brought by the distraction to spin dash into Metal Sonic. As soon as the robot was knocked away, he and Sonic ran off as the missile landed and large explosion landed where they just were.

"Looks like Tails' Tornado 2 is packing a lot more punch than he told me it would." Sonic said, smirking as he and Shadow escaped the maze.

Above them, the Tornado flew by overhead. It did a little wing wave in the air before flying forward, and Sonic motioned to Shadow a little natural ramp that Sonic had used when he and Tails had fought the GUN robots. Both speeding up, the two hedgehogs dashed across the area and up into the air from the ramps, where they soon landed on either wing of the Tornado 2.

"Ok Sonic, we're on our way out of here. Just tell me where to next." Tails yelled above the roar of the engine.

"We're going to-" Sonic was cut off as suddenly Silica appeared in the sky above them.

"She can fly too?" Tails yelled shocked as he immediately jerked the plane in a different direction, dodging Silica's next attack.

Circling around in the sky, Tails was amazed to see how quickly Silica recovered from that miss, and only stopped about twenty feet below them. For such a burst of speed so sudden, her jets were also able to allow her to stop on a dime.

Shadow watched below also and was just as amazed as Tails. He then realized why it was so hard to escape Silica in the tight corners of Eggman's ship when he confronted her before. If he had stayed on straighter paths, he might have had a better shot from being able to reach his top speed more.

"Tails! Send the plane right back at Silica! I've got an idea!" Sonic yelled.

Tails followed his orders and did a quick turn upwards before purposely stalling the plane and then turning it into a nosedive straight at Silica.

"Don't forget, she wants me, so none of you worry about her attacking you." Sonic called out to the others on the plane.

"Sonic, what's the plan?" Tails yelled out to Amy.

"It involves Amy." Sonic said, letting go of the plane wing and grabbing back on to the plane tail. "Amy, when she comes by, she'll aim at me, so I need you to..."

"Sonic, I've been waiting to do this for a while." Amy said, standing up in her seat.

As the plane closed in, Silica set her sights back onto Sonic, and then dashed forward. All she needed to do was attack from an angle to grab Sonic and leave the plane in its nosedive. Quickly reaching that angle, she reached out for Sonic as she came from their side and-

"Piko Piko Hammer!" Amy yelled, slamming the hammer straight down onto Silica in her mid air dive. The force of attack sent her plummeting straight down towards the ground, and looking closely, they could see a puff or smoke where she landed, hard.

"Nice job Amy. Now Silica knows why everyone fears your hammer." Sonic commented, looking below.

"You're welcome Sonic," Amy said, blushing, "I guess I just don't know my own strength."

He let go of the back of the plane, flipped in the air, and landed on the wing again as Tails turned the plane back around.

"Now, as I was saying, we're heading in that direction!" Sonic yelled, pointing towards a collection of clouds in the sky.

"Why in that direction, Sonic?" Amy asked.

"Because Amy, it's time for us to take out Eggman once again."

Not long after uttering those words, did the clouds above them finally part as the sun finished setting and all turned to darkness. But, by the moonlight they could see what the clouds revealed, the Egg Port, high in sky above them.


	19. 19: Internal Sabotage

A/N: I don't usually do these, but this is for those of you who are missing my postings on my profile.

Ultra Sonic has hit it's final stretch. I'm sorry it took me so long to post (a month) but I'll try and finish this story before Thanksgiving. And if I flake again, it'll at least be done before Christmas, heh.

Anyway, enjoy.

Ultra Sonic 19

Internal Sabotage

"Alert! Hull breach in starboard halls!" a computerized voice said.

Eggman, quickly pulling up video footage, was surprised to see Sonic, Shadow, and Amy running down the halls from a giant smoking hole in one of Egg Port's walls.

"So Sonic, you've decided to bring the fight to me? Well, here's to this being your last fight!" Eggman said with a cackle. "Now, Metal Sonic, Silica, return to ship. It's time for us to have a hedgehog extermination.

Meanwhile, the three hedgehogs ran through the ship, turning this way and that, zipping down seemingly random hallways.

"Ok you two, you know where to go?" Sonic asked Shadow and Amy, who were both following him.

"I wouldn't have forgotten already." Shadow responded.

"Don't worry Sonic, your plan will be a success." Amy said.

"Ok now, time to spilt up." Sonic said.

Reaching a four-way intersection, the three hedgehogs split up going down different hallways.

Shadow reached his destination first. It was a circuitry room. Every area of the ship was connected to here. The room could be described as a giant circuit breaker and a power regulator at the same time.

And Shadow was here to shut it down.

Looking around, he found a control console, and quickly went to work. It didn't take long for him to find the directory linking the main power cells to the rest of the ship, but before he could do anything about it, he was suddenly locked out from the console.

"What's going on?" Shadow quickly asked as he tried to log into the console again. However, he was stuck out.

"Did you think it would be that easy?" came a voice from behind.

Shadow had only a second to jump to the side before a metal fist whizzed by and smashed the console. The fist belonged to no other but Metal Sonic.

"I was hoping I would run into you again." Shadow said, smiling at his foe. "Now I can get back at you for messing with my head."

"Let's see if you can."

Shadow charged straight for Metal Sonic, but the robot strafed to the side to dodge. Shadow kept going however and ran up along one of the cables on the wall. Reaching the desired height, he launched himself from the wall and into a Homing Attack directly at Metal Sonic.

Activating his jet Metal Sonic blasted himself off the ground and out of harm's way. Floating up in the air, he realized that after dodging Shadow's last attack, he'd lost sight of him.

"Where are you hedgehog?" Metal Sonic yelled in frustration.

"Behind you!" Shadow yelled.

Turning around, Metal Sonic saw Shadow flying towards him, after jumping off from the wall behind him. Taking a full face of spines, the robot was knocked down to the ground while Shadow landed nimbly on his own feet.

"Now, that wasn't anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be." Shadow gloated, turning around. He had to find another control console so that he could-

Before he could finish his thought, Shadow was slammed from behind by Metal. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"

"I should have guessed it wouldn't be."

Shadow charged at Metal once again, but this time when Metal set himself up to block, Shadow stopped short and jumped completely over him. Landing quickly and spinning around, Shadow tried a quick kick at the robot. Quickly spinning himself, Metal was able to block the attack and catch his foot, then flinging the hedgehog up into the air. Taking the opportunity, he activated his jet and slammed right into Shadow, knocking him up into the ceiling. After a moment, Shadow fell to the ground, slightly stunned by the attack.

"Had enough hedgehog?" Metal Sonic goaded.

"I still have one last trick left." Shadow said weakly.

Getting up, he dashed towards a wall and ran up onto it again, but instead of running straight up to the ceiling, he chose to run parallel to the floor. Quickly spinning around the room, he became a black and red blur.

Metal Sonic, growing impatient, set his eyes to tracking the hedgehog. Getting a lock onto him, he prepared another attack, when suddenly Shadow jumped from the wall and straight at him. The sudden attack caught him off guard, and Metal Sonic took a face full of spines.

However, that wasn't the end of it, the second he got hit, he was suddenly shocked with electricity. He then realized that Shadow had run around the room to gather some of the electricity being given off from the wires, and use it as an attack.

Metal was knocked back to the other side of the room, where he impacted the wire and suddenly became a lightning rod as all the electricity that Shadow had built up poured threw him and into the wires behind him. Metal Sonic feared his chips might fry.

Soon, Shadow was out of electric charge, and fell to the ground. Shortly afterward, Metal fell too, smoking.

"Too bad, he's all burnt. Would have made a good toaster." Shadow said.

Starting to turn, he prepared to leave when a metallic claw suddenly grabbed him by the neck.

"So, you like electricity?" Metal Sonic said, slamming Shadow into the wall of wires and then extending the claws in his free hand. "Well, how do you like being part of an electric circuit?"

Metal Sonic slammed his free claw into the wall, piercing the wire and sending thousands of volts through his metallic body, which immediately rushed into Shadow's body. It didn't help that it was the cable from the main power core that Metal Sonic and inadvertently cut open.

After a moment, Metal was able to pull his claw away from the wire, ending the electric flow. In his other claw was a fur burnt and unconscious Shadow. Satisfied, he let go of the hedgehog before he let go of his neck and then fell to floor himself, going offline.

Meanwhile, Amy was reaching her destination. Opening the final door, she entered the ships engine room. As hot as a furnace and filled with what looked like a number of boilers, each one of the boilers was really an engine that powered the propulsion for the ship.

Amy pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer before closing her eyes and randomly choosing which engine she would smash first.

"I wouldn't do anything if I were you." Said a female metallic voice from behind Amy.

"Who's there?" Amy asked, jumping up for a second and spinning around to face whoever made the voice.

"You've already forgotten me, little girl?" Silica said, stepping out of the shadows.

"Silica..." Amy growled.

"Oh, so you haven't forgotten about me. Great, now we can start from where we left off."

"I've been waiting to smash your face in since the shopping mall thing yesterday." Amy said, pointing her hammer at the robot.

"Then come and get me." Silica taunted.

"Gladly!" Amy yelled, charging ahead.

Amy's first swing went straight for Silica's head, but Silica was able to jump back in time. Two more swings for the robots midsection missed, and Amy angrily jumped into the air and came down with an overhead smash. Silica barely rolled out of the way, and looked back to see the metal floor ruptured by a big dent.

"My turn!" Silica yelled, blasting off the ground with her rocket jets.

With Silica charging straight at her, Amy quickly brought her hammer up to smack the robot before she reached her. However, Silica moved too fast for Amy's reflexes and made a direct hit with a head butt to Amy's stomach. Not stopping there, Silica still flew on with her head of spines still in Amy's stomach until she slammed Amy into the opposite wall.

"Had enough yet?" Silica asked as she pulled back a little bit before grabbing Amy's neck by her claws.

"Never!" Amy said, getting her feet between the robot and her, she pushed back as hard as she could and sent Silica back a couple feet.

Before falling to the ground, Amy turned and kicked off the wall with her feet as hard as she could to send herself straight at Silica. Silica saw the attack coming and kept her eyes straight on Amy's hammer to make sure she could avoid it in time. However, she was surprised when instead of swinging it at the very last moment, Amy collided into her with a head butt. The force behind the attack sent Silica into a wall while Amy bounced off and landed neatly on her feet.

"How'd you like the Amy Head-butt?" Amy asked as Silica pushed off from the wall and landed softly to the ground with her rocket jets.

"Cute." Silica said, annoyed she had been hit with such an attack.

By this time, Amy was breathing hard, but at the same time, Silica realized that with Amy's raw power, she couldn't take too many more hits.

"So tell me," Silica asked, trying to buy time for a plan, "Why is it that you fight so hard?"

"To make sure Sonic doesn't have any doubt about my reliability, why else?" Amy said, posing with her hammer for a second.

"Like I would know..." Silica said, "...you weirdo..." she muttered.

"Then why do you fight?" Amy asked.

"For my creator, why else?"

"You don't ever feel the need to fight for your own cause or reasons?"

"Why should I? I'm a robot. I was created for Dr. Eggman to fight for what he believes in, nothing I think about it matters."

"If you say so..." Amy answered, slightly saddened by the answer.

"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Silica said, slightly angered with Amy's response.

"It's just that I've met other robots that Eggman have created that have broken from him to follow their own paths. The ones that stay with him usually have their own reasons besides loyalty."

"That's a lie. Even Metal Sonic, considered the smartest, doesn't act that way."

"That's not true, from the very first moment Metal met Sonic, he's been driven to defeating him, even going as far as to disobey Eggman one time. I don't know any robots anymore that Eggman makes with a smart A.I. that just fights for him out of loyalty." Amy said. Finishing her small speech, she recalled E-102 Gamma for a moment...

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Silica suddenly broke out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Amy asked.

"That you'd actually try to trick me into believing such a thing. And how would it distract me from beating you?"

"It wasn't meant to distract you, I just wanted to know."

"And now you think you're better than me because you have some 'righteous' purpose for fighting, and I don't? Don't try to patronize me!" Silica yelled.

"I wasn't!" Amy yelled back.

"Then prove it!" Silica yelled, charging at Amy.

Instead of waiting for the attack to come to her, Amy decided to turn and quickly run behind one of the engines.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are!" Silica called out as she quickly activated her rockets and flew around the engines searching for Amy.

"Over here!" Amy yelled. Silica turned around in mid air to see Amy jumping from one of the engine tops to attack from above. Scoring a direct hit, Silica was sent flying into one of the engines.

Landing, Amy quickly ran towards Silica to attack again, but Silica pulled herself out of the dent she made and quickly flew around Amy and kicked her from behind. The momentum had Amy trip and land against one of the engines. Quickly getting up, Amy was then hit from the side from a spinning attack from Silica, attacking with her robotic spines.

Jumping away from that last attack, Amy quickly looked around to see that Silica had disappeared this time instead. Before she had a chance to look, she was attacked again from behind. Spinning quickly she missed Silica with her hammer as the robot, still tucked in a ball, rolled off behind a corner.

Amy rushed after Silica, but hearing a whiz in the air behind her, she quickly turned and swung her hammer just in time to catch Silica before she landed another attack. Silica was sent flying off from the attack but recovered in mid-air. However, Amy was right behind her, winding up a swing that hit and sent Silica through an engine tank, blowing it up.

"Oh wait, that's right, I have to blow up these engines." Amy said, remembering her original objective.

"Over my lifeless body!" Silica yelled, coming out of the destroyed engine's rubble to fly right at Amy. The two collided, and Silica jumped back as Amy rolled away along the ground from the force of the attack. Getting up, Amy then saw Silica making a rocket jump and then coming down with hard kick.

Amy rolled out of the way and dodged the attack as Silica hit the ground, but Silica knew what was coming next and quickly jumped up and back flipped over the hammer swing that was coming her way. Landing again, she spun and made a roundhouse kick, but it was blocked as Amy swung the hammer around and knocked away the kick. While the hammer was still too far to swing with again, Amy lunged forward with a head-butt to knock Silica back a few steps, and then spun around with another swing. Silica activated her jets and flew straight up, however, she notice too late that behind her was another engine, and Amy smashed through it with one strike

"Come back down here!" Amy said, running towards a wall and using it to wall kick up after Silica. Silica flew back and got out of range, but then Amy surprised her by throwing her hammer like a boomerang. The hammer flew through the air and struck Silica, sending her towards the ground.

Both Silica and Amy landed at once, Amy landing on her feet and grabbing her hammer out of the air, while Silica landing headfirst and into another engine. Amy was quickly there once again and Silica could only barely get out of the way as another engine was smashed to bits.

'If I don't stop this maniac hedgehog, this ship isn't going to be up in the air much longer.' Silica thought. 'Somehow, the longer we fight, the stronger she becomes and the better her technique is. Her stamina is amazing too for an animal.'

Finally arriving with a plan, Silica quickly flew around an engine and came out behind Amy. Seeing Silica out of the corner of her eyes, Amy quickly spun around with her hammer, but Silica was too fast and quickly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up into the air.

"How about the two of us go for a spin?" Silica said as she quickly moved to her fastest speed and started flying around the room in a circle.

"Put me down, I'm getting dizzy!" Amy yelled.

"Not until you feel this!" Silica said, finally reaching the desired speed she quickly turned and flew both Amy and herself straight into another engine.

The resulting explosion rocked the entire ship.


	20. 20: Silver Sonic

A/N: Missing my update time was inexcusable, to say the least, and I apologize. I have started a forum through my profile for you all to yell at me, so please do. If I can, I hope to have this story finished by the end of this weekend, or at least before Christmas. I'm planning on playing through Shadow the Hedgehog soon, as the next stories I plan to write will have Shadow in a more prominent role.

Ultra Sonic 20

Silver Sonic

It wasn't hard to figure out where to go; Sonic could sense the power of the Ultima Emerald from the moment he stepped onto the EggPort. It just would take a while to get to it, that's all. Besides, running past the security defenses and defeating all the guard robots wasn't an overly hard thing to do, and it even gave him some exercise to boot.

Now all that was left to do was take care of Eggman.

After defeating the final robot, Sonic landed softly before the final door. Eggman and the Ultima Emerald were both on the other side.

He knocked on the steel door.

After a few seconds, the door slowly started to lift, and when it finally reached the top, Sonic peered into the room only to see pitch dark. Once again, it was his turn to act.

Sonic walked right in. And once he did, the door closed behind him.

Completely pitched in darkness, Sonic waited for a minute before finally folding his arms and tapping his foot.

"I'm waiting..." He said.

The lights suddenly turned on all over, and Sonic looked around to see himself in the same room he was in when he and Knuckles had to deal with Coconuts. Looking up, he saw the Ultima Emerald in a case above him.

However, that case was attached to a giant laser beam cannon.

Looking past the emerald and the beam cannon he could see the same lookout box that Eggman was in before. And there he was again, behind a console, looking intently down at the blue hedgehog.

"So Sonic, are you ready to be my super powered servant?"

"Sorry Eggman, but the test drive I had last time left me...wanting."

"Well then, why don't I make you?"

"I dare you to try."

Eggman, whose hand was lazily hovering over a button ever since Sonic walked into the room, finally found his reason to press it. Immediately the Ultima Emerald glowed as the beam cannon powered up and a shot was fired right at Sonic. Sonic quickly reacted and moved out of the way, leaving the beam to hit the ground and leave just a singe.

"Is it just me Eggman, or are your death beams lacking a little punch?"

"It isn't designed to incinerate you Sonic, oh no. That would be such a waste of possible slave. Instead, before you leave here, I'll be sure this beam will hit you, and then once again Ultra will be released, and you'll be on my side."

"In your dreams Eggman. I already figured out that the Master and Chaos emeralds don't create the Ultima Emerald. You're only using them to power this ship."

"Oh, what a smart hedgehog. How in the world did you ever figure that out?"

"When I was turned into Ultra, that's how. I could sense it."

"Well, well, well, then tell me Sonic, why did you send your friends to the power core and engine room then?"

"To make sure your two robots don't interfere."

With that, Sonic quickly dashed to the wall and started running up vertically almost immediately. Within seconds he was past the laser cannon with the Ultima Emerald and only a couple of feet away from the observatory holding Eggman. Within range, he finally jumped off from the wall and sent himself flying with a Homing Attack, but before it could reach the observatory glass, something flew in the way and bounced him back towards the ground.

Uncurling on the fall back to the ground, Sonic looked up to see what had stopped his attack. Directly above him were the cold red eyes of Metal Sonic. And he started glowing.

But, then he sensed something coming up from behind him. He could feel the rush of wind and quickly swerved mid-air to dodge. Once out of the way, he took a glance at what had moved so fast. It was Silica. And she was also glowing.

Sonic finally landed on the ground, and looked back up in time to see the two robots meet up in the air with a flash of light. Sonic covered his eyes until the light subsided, only to find that the two had combined to form Silver Sonic.

"Well then, this has gotten interesting." Eggman said from above.

"Once I take this hunk of metal out, you're next Eggman!" Sonic yelled.

"Silver Sonic, attack!"

Silver Sonic flew down with the figure of a monster, claws extended. Sonic jumped out of the way as the ground was cracked from the robot's landing. Running over to the right, the robot suddenly looked up with one of its eyes. Targeting Sonic in that instant, it was instantly off the ground thanks to its rockets and going after Sonic once more.

Sonic quickly changed direction and started running around the circumference of the cylinder room. Silver Sonic chased after him, but Sonic seemed to be just fast enough to barely out run it. Silver Sonic soon grew bored of the chase and immediately stopped, and once Sonic realized it and had run around the other side of the room, Silver had jetted off directly across and aimed another claw at Sonic's head.

Sonic stopped so suddenly he nearly tripped over himself. He ducked down just in time as the claw impacted the wall right where his head used to be. He then quickly took a step to the right as the other claw nearly impaled his chest. Seeing his chance then, Sonic pushed against the wall and kicked back Silver Sonic as hard as he could, which sent the robot back a few feet, staggering. Before Silver could recover, Sonic then used a Homing Attack right for Silver's chest that knocked him into the opposite wall.

Silver Sonic soon pushed himself off the wall and jetted upwards as Sonic spin dashed and barely missed him. From the air, he shut off his jets and dropped like a rock from above Sonic. Sonic slid out of the way and flipped backwards onto his feet. Silver Sonic landed, immediately firing up his jets again and charging Sonic once more. Sonic charged and jumped towards the robot, sending a flying kick to its face that connected. However, Silver Sonic took the hit on purpose, and grabbed Sonic's leg before spinning and flinging the hedgehog high up into the air.

The force caused by Silver Sonic's sudden spin had Sonic flipping head over heel in the air, unable to control himself. Meanwhile, Silver Sonic watched from below as Sonic made a high arc in the air before starting to come back down. The robot then launched itself with it's right arm extended, and was able to punch Sonic right in the gut, suddenly stopping the hedgehog's uncontrollable spin, and sending him flying into the wall.

Sonic hit the wall hard, back first. Slowly, he slid down until he reached the ground. Once on the floor, he moved into a sitting position and looked up as Silver Sonic landed before him.

"So Sonic," Eggman said from above, "Tell me, before I unleash Ultra once more and you become my slave forever more, what did you hope to accomplish by sending your friends onto my ship? You've already told me that you knew that the ship was powered by the Master and Chaos Emeralds, so what was the point of attacking the engine room and power room if they were only traps?"

"Well Eggman," Sonic said, pausing from pain, "since you do have me at your mercy, I guess I'll tell you. There were two reasons. First it was so Shadow and Amy could get rid of your two robots, or at least weaken them if they still made it here and transformed."

"But, unfortunately, that plan didn't work."

"Yeah, but then there's the second reason, which should be coming into action any moment now."

As Sonic finished his sentence, the ship suddenly rocked. Eggman fell out of his seat, and Silver Sonic lost his footing and fell to the ground. Alarms immediately started flashing everywhere. A door slammed behind Eggman, but it was more than likely a product of the alarms.

Sonic shakily got to his feet and looked around the room he was in. Silver Sonic quickly got up and activated his jets to hover in the air. He watched Sonic for the moment, as it looked like the hedgehog had a plan. And the way Sonic was searching around the room, ignoring the menacing robot, worried him.

The ship rocked again, and then again, each time worse than before. Eggman quickly checked the monitors at his console only to find that the ship was suddenly losing power. No, he spoke to soon, as just then the last of the hidden main power systems had shut down, and the Egg Port was completely on auxiliary power. However, with the damage caused by Shadow and Amy, the ship wouldn't stay in the air much longer. He'd be lucky if he could land it in time.

Before Eggman could plot a course for landing, a flash of light caught his eye. Running back towards the window he looked down into the room below him to see the large light manifest itself in the middle of the room between Sonic and Silver. The light slowly faded away to reveal Shadow and Amy, both looking they had seen better days, but still standing.

"You guys sure took your time." Sonic said with a grin as he saw his two friends finished reappearing from the Chaos Control.

Amy quickly leapt into Sonic's arms and gave him a quick hug before stepping aside for Shadow, who revealed himself to have the seven Chaos Emeralds.

"Next time," Shadow started as he held out the emeralds, "Listen to me when I say the thing is too strong to take on alone."

"Sure, next time." Sonic said as he took the emeralds.

Eggman, looking from above, realized what had happened. Sonic had sensed the Chaos Emeralds in the ship, and had seen through his light show from before where he 'created' the Ultima Emerald. The emeralds were there, but the Ultima Emerald was a separate emerald, one that he had helped to reawaken using the power of the emeralds. After using them, he had placed them away to power the Egg Port, using the power and engine stations to mask their energy signatures. However, with those two areas destroyed, it wasn't hard for anyone with any affinity with the emeralds to find them, in this case being Shadow. It all became clear to Eggman how easily he had been tricked. However, he still had one bet left.

"Silver Sonic!" Eggman yelled from above. "Don't worry about him transforming into Super Sonic. I designed you to be able to fight on par with him, so all that's left is to beat him!"

"You really think it'll be that easy Eggman?" Sonic asked as the emeralds started to glow and float around him. Pretty soon all seven surrounded him, spinning in a small hoop until the light from them grew too bright for the eyes. Once the light faded, Super Sonic was revealed, saying, "Then bring it on."

Super and Silver both immediately flew up, facing off while spinning around the laser cannon holding the Ultima Emerald. The two continued to fly up, keeping the cannon in between, until Super Sonic decided to make the first move. Speeding up in the same direction he had been going, he soon reached the other side and caught right up to Silver Sonic, throwing the first punch.

Silver blocked the punch with his arm before throwing a punch with his free arm. Sonic dodged by flying back, but Silver continued the punch, flying after Sonic with his arm like a spear. Sonic back-flipped and flew under Silver and kicked upwards into the robot's underbelly, and Silver Sonic rebounded a couple feet away before blasting his jets in another direction to charge Super Sonic. This time, his attack hit in the form of a tackle, and the two Sonics hurtled down and hit the ground with a loud crash.

Silver Sonic was the first to fly up afterward, but Super Sonic was right behind him, grabbing the robot's leg as he kept on flying upward. After dragging the robot near the ceiling again, Super Sonic started to spin the robot around by the foot, gaining speed before launching the robot into a wall. Silver Sonic outstretched his claws and created the softest landing he could, his bulky arms taking most of the impact, and then used his now hooked claws to climb up about a foot, just enough for Sonic to charge headlong into the wall where the robot just was.

Silver Sonic took this opportunity and flew down, grabbing Super Sonic by the quills and whipping the golden hedgehog across the room into another part of the wall. The robot then struck Super Sonic with a clawed fist across the face, and then another to the gut, before grabbing him by the neck and flinging him again into another part of the wall.

Flying after the hedgehog, Silver Sonic was suddenly grabbed by the leg. Looking down, Super Sonic was seen whipping the robot by the leg towards the ground. Before Silver Sonic could land, Super Sonic spun himself into a ball and quickly crashed straight down with a Super Homing Attack to Silver Sonic's midsection, cracking the armor that was there. The two powerful fighters then hit the ground with a large crash and lots of smoke.

The smoke took a while but finally cleared to show Super Sonic standing over the powered down forms of Metal Sonic and Silica.

"Well, I guess they really were weakened from fighting my friends." Super Sonic quipped.


	21. 21: Final Night

A/N: It's the final chapter of the story. It's more of an epilouge than anything else. I'm glad I got this up before Christmas, although with it being less than two hours before midnight, it's more like a Christmas present for the rest of you. Anyway, keep on the look out for my next story, which should appear in a few weeks. It's possible I'll have a preview of it up in my forums in a week or two. Keep your eyes peeled.

Ultra Sonic 21

Final Night

Super Sonic stood tall above Metal Sonic and Silica, his golden light penetrating the entire room.

"Sonic, this isn't over yet!" Eggman yelled before slamming his fest down on the activation button for the Ultima Cannon.

The Ultima Cannon quickly started up and started glowing, but Sonic made no move to try and dodge.

"Sonic, your super form will offer you no protection against this beam! If anything, you should know that the Chaos Emeralds act as a catalyst for your transformation into Ultra Sonic! Prepare to be my slave forever!"

Finally, just as the cannon was about to fire, it exploded. Pieces scattered everywhere, and Super Sonic had to fly in between them and Shadow and Amy to act as a shield to his friends. Some of the pieces even flew up and shattered the window to the observatory holding Eggman. Another piece went over and smashed the case that held the Master Emerald in the middle of the room. Eggman paid no notice however as first and foremost came the thought of what had happened to his machine.

"SONIC! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY ULTIMA CANNON?" Eggman roared from above. The three hedgehogs below all winced from the intensity of the rage in the scientist's voice.

Sonic simply gave a grin as a response before saying, "Tails, you can come out now."

Eggman looked up surprised as he saw one of the panels to a console nearby him suddenly pop open. Out from the machine came Tails, holding a toolbox in one of his hands. Quickly rushing across the room he grabbed the Master Emerald that had rolled into a corner, and then he jumped out of a hole in the window. Twirling his tails as he fell, he made a soft landing before holding out the Master Emerald to the other three.

"TAILS!" Eggman roared again. "HOW DARE YOU SHORT CIRCUIT MY MACHINES?"

"Well guys," Sonic started saying as he turned around, his fur already turning from gold back to blue, "I guess it's finally over." Sonic finished turning and held up the Ultima Emerald to the others. They had recovered everything.

An explosion took that moment to rock the entire ship. A computer voice rang out "Warning! Power Failure! Power Failure! Crash Landing Imminent!"

"Looks like I spoke too soon," Sonic said sarcastically. "Tails, we need a way out of here."

"Just follow me to the Tornado!" Tails called out as the four rushed out of the room, leaving an angry but defeated Eggman.

Meanwhile, in a far off forest...

Knuckles dashed through the forest, around trees and under large roots, smashing whatever rock may unluckily be in his way and swinging on any low hanging vine that came by. Rouge was with him, but up above, using branches like springboards to glide from one to the next as quickly as she could.

"How long do you think until we make it to the ruins of that city?" Rouge called out from above.

"At least a day, unless they suddenly start moving off in our direction" Knuckles responded before taking the chance to swing off another vine and ahead of Rouge.

"This is going to take forever..." Rouge said with a sigh as Knuckles pulled ahead. She landed on another branch and started running across it. Reaching the end she pushed down to get ready to jump, but as the branch pushed back, her heel got stuck for a moment and flung her off balance.

The branch finally let go, but that moment of off-balance sent Rouge upside down and towards the ground, her wings folded underneath her and unable to help more than opening a parachute with you above it.

"Aaah!" Rouge screamed. It seemed like the end to her, and Knuckles by now was another mile away. She could watched as the tree that had snagged her grew taller and taller faster and faster. She started to feel faint. Her eyes slowly closed as the ground grew closer, although she could have sworn there was a flash of red right before she closed her eyes. But it was probably a bird...

The next time she opened her eyes she closed them quickly again from the sunlight. Rolling over a little she looked off to the side and opened her eyes slowly this time, squinting at first as her vision settled slowly. The first thing that she saw was a gigantic waterfall before. She watched as rocks all through it bounced water all around, the drops cascading down wonderfully into a large mist, and the sunlight filtered through the trees at just the right angle and strength to create a large rainbow through it all. It was breathtaking.

That's when Rouge recalled the events that brought her to here. Quickly looking around, she scanned the area. She was alone in a clearing, in the center of it actually, with the trees all arched over as if to cover the area from direct sunlight. Looking down, she saw that she was lying on a bed of leaves. They were of a different kind than the leaves in the clearing, extra soft and of more exotic colors than just green, like red, blue, and orange. Like she was herself lying on a rainbow.

A small rabbit hopped up to her in her daze, and looked nervously towards her. She smiled and held back a giggle as she saw a whole group of them half hiding behind a tree, as their leader appeared to make friends. She offered the rabbit that had come up to her one of the leaves she had been laying on, and the rabbit quickly bit into it. It seemed to be a wonderful delight to him. Immediately a whole swarm of rabbits came across and started eating up all the leaves of Rouge's makeshift bed, and Rouge was forced to open her wings and lift herself up and outside the group of rabbits.

Leaving the rabbits to their meal, Rouge slowly walked towards the large pool of water created by the waterfall. Reaching the edge, she sat down on her knees and reached her hands into the pool for water and washed her face. The water was quite cold and refreshing. After a moment, she reached in for another handful and this time brought it to her lips. It tasted sweet and pure.

She heard the echidna's footsteps long before he reached her. She could now recognize the heavy sound of his metal-laced shoes. She always wondered how they could be so large, and yet have every footstep sound gentle and soft, as if barely touching the ground from the fear of damaging it. She knew then that the forest was where he grew up, and where he most belonged.

Knuckles didn't say a word once he was beside her, but opted to sit down himself before the waterfall. Rouge didn't look at him, but continued looking at the waterfall until a peach blocked her vision. It was being offered by Knuckles.

She accepted the peach by taking it into her hands without a sound. She slowly brought it to her lips and bit softly, savoring the taste of the juice and flesh. Closing her eyes, a soft wind passed by, rustling a few leaves along with her wings. It was perfect.

Knuckles started eating a piece of fruit himself as he looked into the blue of the water, watching as the fish swam in circles all around, their scales glistening from the sun. Another moment of silence passed.

Chirping was heard. Both echidna and bat looked up to see two birds happily chirping their heads off. One was blue and the other was pink, and it was obvious to see that they were together, and happy, flapping all around and in circles around each other. Both Knuckles and Rouge smiled.

"Knuckles..." Rouge said softly. Knuckles didn't move nor make a sound, but continued watching the birds. "Knuckles... about the other day..." The birds finally flew from view, but Knuckles still showed no response. "It was because of Shadow that I did what I did. It was just that... he needed someone he could trust... and Eggman was offering information on his past, you know how desperate Shadow is to find out of his past... If, if I had known what would have happened to Sonic I never would have done... and neither would have Shadow... Shadow was just so alone, and beside himself... You just can't understand what it feels like to be all alone with no knowledge of your past..."

"Don't I?" Knuckles said softly. There wasn't a hint of anger in his voice, but those words hurt more than anything he had ever said to her. Rouge was reminded of just a few days ago, of what he said to her... no... of what he shared with her...

The two both sensed it at the same time. The same energy force that comprised the power of Ultra Sonic, but different. Not only was it not too far off, but it also felt like it was coming this way.

"Time to go." Knuckles said, getting up. He then noticed that in his other hand he held the Night Emerald. It had stayed with him from the ruins without Knuckles' knowledge. It was if the emerald knew that after what happened with Shade he would not have brought it with him willingly. Whatever the reason behind that, he didn't know, but he did know that the emerald had appeared because of the energy source. They were connected, somehow important, that he could sense.

Knuckles and Rouge quickly rushed through the trees, this time Knuckles leading on the ground with Rouge following in his wake. The two followed their senses to the source of the energy until they came across a large canyon, just as the shadow of a large cloud appeared.

"It's not down there." Rouge said as she looked over the edge.

"But it's around here, somewhere. Really close." Knuckles said.

The two looked around but still couldn't see any sign of what would possibly be Ultra Sonic, but nothing could be found.

"Do you think we should go down?" Rouge asked.

"Wait, something doesn't feel right..." Knuckles answered. He kept looking all around, into the forest, into the canyon, on the canyon walls, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary under the shadow of that cloud.

Then again, for a cloud to suddenly pass over the sun, its shadow was lingering for quite a while. In fact, it even seemed like the shadow was getting bigger...

"Knuckles, look up!" Rouge yelled. Knuckles quickly moved his eyes towards the sky as the large hulk of the Egg Port zoomed right past him and Rouge and into the canyon below them.

"That was...sudden..." Knuckles commented.

"Yeah...it was..." Rouge agreed.

"Knuckles, Rouge, up here!" A familiar voice came from above.

Knuckles and Rouge looked up once more to see the Tornado 2 flying above and coming in for a landing with Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Shadow all aboard.

Once the plane landed, everyone ran out to meet and greet each other and catch up on everything that had happened, although Knuckles chose not to mention the incident with Shade.

"So Sonic, where's the Master Emerald?" Knuckles asked.

"I've got it!" Tails answered, handing it over.

"And this is the Ultima Emerald. Knuckles, I think you should look over it." Sonic said, pulling the emerald out.

"Ok then..." Knuckles said before trailing off, as when reached for the emerald, the Night Emerald reappeared in his hand, the hand reaching for the Ultima Emerald. Before he could stop himself, the two emeralds touched each other and then both flashed with a giant flash of light, one pure white and one pure black.

The lights eventually faded away to show two figures standing right in the middle of Sonic and the gang. One was an echidna similar to Knuckles, except his fur was pure white, with a small indent on his chest where Knuckles' crescent moon was. He was also slightly taller, quills slightly longer, showing that he was older, and there was a ferocity to his face that made him look as if he was almost always mad. His eyes shone through the loudest, as they were the only part of his body that wasn't white, instead being a cloudy yet bright gray. His shoes were large and metallic like Knuckles', with a dark gray pin lining surrounding a pattern of white and light gray across the sneakers.

"Is that...?" Shadow whispered to Sonic.

"Yes, that's Ultra." Sonic said, sensing the same kind of power from him that flowed through him while he was Ultra Sonic.

The second figure was a hedgehog in all black, quills long and flowing past the waist, longer than Sonic's, and wearing a large robe that was as thin as a nightgown, but unlike her black fur the robe was a dark purple. It was barely distinguishable from the rest of the hedgehog, but you could still see it there. Her eyes were a dark violet, matching the color of the robe she wore.

"You're Night, aren't you?" Knuckles asked the black hedgehog.

"Yes, I was the one that got rid of my sister Shade for you." Night said to Knuckles. Her voice was soft, strong, and mature. There was a part of her voice that made her sound like someone that could always be trusted. Someone that could do no harm.

"Night! What is going on here! I've been having dreams that I've been a hedgehog. Nothing has made any sense recently." Ultra started yelling. His voice sounded even fiercer than his gaze, it was like an even angrier version of Knuckles when he was mad. "First I sense the Chaos Emeralds, then I become a hedgehog originally named Sonic, suddenly I'm asleep again, and then once again I awaken after sensing the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Calm down Ultra, you had accidentally possessed someone while in your emerald prison and didn't realize it. You caused trouble for this hedgehog, you know." Night said, pointing towards Sonic.

"In that case I apologize," Ultra said, bowing towards Sonic, "but tell me what has happened!" Ultra yelled quickly.

"I'll explain it all to you Ultra, in due time, but first, let me thank you all, and give you a warning."

"A warning, a warning of what?" Sonic said. The group assembled around him as they all watched the mysterious hedgehog and echidna before them.

"You have all done well to recover the emeralds and working together so well, but there will be many more trials for each of you. Especially you, current guardian of the Master Emerald."

"He's a guardian!" Ultra yelled.

"Calm down Ultra! Times have changed. I'll tell you everything once we leave."

"Fine, hurry up then."

"As I was saying, trouble is brewing. You have not seen the last of Shade, or others like her. Be careful. That is all that I can say for now as Ultra and I must go. We shall see each other again, however."

With that, the two entities started glowing, one white and the other black. The two then launched into the sky, and soon were gone in another brilliance of light.

"So...what do you think that was all about?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, except that new adventures are probably around the corner." Sonic said.

The heroes looked around, glad that they had made it through the last few days, but already bracing themselves towards new adventures. They weren't Sonic heroes for nothing, now were they?

"Anyway, Shadow, where are you off to?" Sonic asked.

"My memory is still missing. All I can do is to continue to search for it." Shadow said. Finished, he turned and started to walk away.

"Knuckles, what're you off to?" Sonic asked.

"The appearance of Night, Ultra, and the ruins over the past few days...It appears there's more to my past and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I'm sorry, but I probably won't be seeing you or the others for a while as I'll be on Angel Island, and it won't be found again anytime soon..." Knuckles said, that last part directed at Rouge. He too then turned and walked off.

Rouge stood left between the black hedgehog and the echidna as they walked off different paths. She looked at each before saying anything.

"Sonic...if you see Knuckles again anytime soon, tell him I'm sorry." With that, she turned and ran after Shadow into the forest.

"I guess it's just the three of us again guys." Sonic said to Amy and Tails.

"It's not like I mind Sonic." Amy said, leaping over and hugging Sonic close.

"How about we get back to the Tornado and head to my workshop?" Tails suggested.

"Great idea, let's go!" Sonic responded.

And with that, our heroes went our separate ways. Until they meet again.

Fin.


End file.
